A Pirate's Life
by tiggerkiddo
Summary: Fresh off his great showing in the Pokemon League Championship, the New Bark trio decide it's time for a vacation! But while Lyra and Crystal go shopping, Ethan is dragged into a sea excursion involving pirates, female pirates and...ghosts who dress like pirates!
1. Chapter 1

{Note: This is a modified story I did for National Novel Writing Month last year. This is also an attempt by me to reset the continuity and come out with something a bit cleaner.}

"So like what is there to do in Hoehn?"

Brandon gave Ethan a confused look. "What do you mean what is there to do? I thought you came here with your friends?"

Wiggler let out an amused squeak. "If you're talking about Crystal and Lyra…I think Lyra dragged Crystal off to go shopping…again."

Wally groaned. "Shopping is boring."

Ethan nodded. "You're telling me! Lyra begged me to tag along but I was like…nah, I'll pass. You couldn't pay me enough to spend all my day, cooped up in a cold building, watching girls model clothes."

"Yea but what about pretty girls?" Brandon said with a smile.

He shook his head. "I grew up with them as kids…they're more like sisters to me than anything else."

Brandon gave him a knowing look. "Oh yea…I see your point then. Yea, I wouldn't want to be in there either. If I was with my girlfriend…"

"Which you don't have," Ethan pointed out. Brandon sat back on the sand chair he had made and sighed, looking up at the clear blue sky. "Not that I'm any better."

"No?"

Wiggler let out an amused squeak and he blasted him with some sand for his troubles. "Nope. I mean I've tried but I haven't had that much luck. I think I'm trying too hard."

"Maybe you are," Wally said.

"And it's kind of boring now in Johto. We had Team Rocket come back…and we cleaned their clocks. We had the Pokemon League Tournament, which I ended up taking second in, just behind Crystal. And now…nada."

"Well…nothing every exciting happens here in Hoehn…not a thing. We just come down here after training to relax, take in the sun. Check out the babes…"

"Yea well…I'm going to take a walk down the beach real quick. Don't wait up for me."

He really wasn't interesting in hearing Brandon talk about his babe watching. For one thing, the guy could go on for hours and hours, never stopping. Poor Wally would do his best to get him to shut up but he could only do so much before Brandon kept going. The funny thing was…Brandon was about in the same spot as him! Wiggler did his best to bounce along but the sand made it hard for him to do it so he was force to waddle. And a waddling Wigglytuff didn't make for a quick trek. He considered picking him up but that was pretty much a no-no in Wiggler's book. And his to be honest.

They reached the shoreline but he walked down a bit, along the very shallow waters that lined the rocky alcoves at the edge of the beach. With the tide out, a few of the low-lying caves were exposed and he stared at one of them for a bit before looking at Wiggler. "Well the tide won't be in for awhile, let's check it out!"

He got down on his knees and crawled into one of the caves. The opening wasn't huge but it was big enough for him to fit in. He took out a Pokeball and summoned his Litwick, Chase. He floated into the air and lit up the passage for him. Chase looked back at him but he gave him thumbs up. "Just keep going forward, I want to see what's inside here."

He didn't have very far to go actually. He crawled his way into a somewhat large but empty rocky chamber, ankle high in water. In the middle of it sat a small mound of rock, where of all things a large crystalline blue orb lay. He knelt down to get a closer look, as he heard Wiggler squeak out something. "Hold on, I found something here!"

He reached down and picked it up. "Wow…I bet the tide washed this thing in here somehow. There's no way something like this could go hiding for so long."

Chase floated in close to it and he peered into it but there didn't seem to be anything inside. "Huh, I wonder what is it for exactly? Oh well, let's go show Brandon and Wally our find! This beats—"

Wiggler let out another squeak and by the sounds of it, he seemed kind of worried. "What's wrong? The tide isn't coming in, is it?"

From the sounds of it, it wasn't the tide Wiggler was worried about but an incoming Gyrados? A Gyrados, really? And how was that big dragon supposed to fit in here? "Wiggler, you're scared of a Gyrados? You beat Lance's Gyrados with ease; this should be nothing for you! From the sounds of it, the Gyrados wasn't alone. "Okay so how far away are they? Can I get out before they come in or am I stuck here?"

Wiggler let out another squeak of disagreement and he sighed. "Drat…well let's see what they want for now. Sucks I'm stuck here in this cave."

He didn't have to long, judging by Wiggler's squeaks because they soon heard the familiar roar of a Gyrados, followed again by Wiggler. "A Wigglytuff? Really? Why don't you just bounce along now?"

It sounded like a young woman, maybe around his age. Wiggler didn't sound eager at all to leave and he thought he heard something akin to a Thunderbolt attack. "H-hey watch it you fat b****! That almost hit me! How about you get out of my way!"

Good luck with that. If he were in danger or in trouble, Wiggler would not budge. "Fine, be that way…I bet your trainer must be inside this cave…hey, anyone in there?" She yelled.

He thought about just keeping quiet, it wouldn't be too hard. "I know you're in there. This balloon would have no reason to stay here unless its trainer was inside. I hope you know that I can be just as patient as you and the tide will be coming in sooner than you think."

He was pretty sure he had read up on when the tide would come in but then again, he couldn't be sure exactly. "I left something very valuable in there."

"I don't see your name on it!"

"What? You jerk! How do you know it didn't belong to someone?"

That was true, she could have left it here but why here in a cave where the tide could pick it up and take it back out to sea where it could get lost? Seemed like a pretty risky move to him, especially since the tide hadn't been out for all that long and he hadn't seen her come in and hide it. "I think you're lying. They told me the tide comes in frequently and if it did come in, it would carry this thing out into the ocean."

"Oh ho…so you think I'm lying love?"

"Yes."

"Well I'm still by the entrance and I can just sit here and wait for the tide to come in. I'll be fine but I doubt you will. The tide will leave you without any air to breathe."

He looked at Chase. Wiggler could chase her off but he couldn't do anything when the tide came in and she had a Gyrados too. It could just guard the entrance with the tide in and then what? "So…I come out and give you the orb and you let us go?"

"I suppose."

He grumbled as he put the orb in his pocket. He began to crawl back out but as he did, he thought he heard Wiggler let out a terrified squeak. Not good. He hurried out and found Wiggler floating on the water with a knocked out expression. He turned to the young woman, who he recognized as the former Cerulean City gym leader, Kasumi. Her usually short orange hair was a bit longer than before and she had ditched her one-piece white swimsuit for a blue bikini with an orange towel tied around her waist. "Sorry about your balloon but she wasn't minding—"

"That's a he! And how did you knock him out?"

"Pepper spray!"

He leveled his eyes at her but she held out her hand. He heard the horn of a ship and saw a large white yacht emerge from the corner. His eyes grew wide and heard Kasumi clear her throat. "What?"

"The orb please!"

He reached into his pocket and took out the orb. She snatched it away and held it up with both hands to the sun. "Haha…about time! I can't tell you how long I've been searching for this orb! So many false starts, so many false leads and now I finally have it!"

He shrugged. "That's nice. Well I'm going," he said. He took out the Pokeball and summoned Wiggler back to his ball. He would have to take him to a Pokemon Center pronto and get him healed up. She grabbed him by his bicep and he looked at her. "What now? I gave you the orb, what do you want now?"

"You're coming with me," she said with a broad smile on her face.

"What, why? I don't want to come with you! You took the treasure I found, you hurt my Pokemon and now you want me to come with you?"

She pulled him closer. "I didn't say I wanted you to, I said you are coming with me. Simple as that! I didn't recognize you at first but I see you're that guy who ended up taking second in that tournament with all the gym leaders, Elite Four Members and Champions from all 5 regions. Second! My crew could use some muscle like that!"

"No way! I'm not—"

She snatched away the Pokeball holding Wiggler. "And if you don't come along quietly…guess what happens to your precious Pokemon?"

His eyes grew wide for a second and he grumbled. "All right…fine. I'll come along. Just don't do anything to him."

She giggled. "Well nothing will if you mind. If you try to do anything funny…well…I'm not sure you want to see that!"

The two of them rode on her Gyrados out to the ship, which had turned and began to head back out to the sea. She climbed aboard the yacht via a rope ladder and he followed close behind but as soon as he was on board, two large muscular men grabbed him and pinned his arms behind him. She put a hand on her hip as she tossed the orb in the air. "Well boys, thanks to his efforts, we now have the Blue Orb!"

"All right captain! That treasure is—"

"Hey, don't be so silly! This doesn't mean anything yet, we still need that f****** map! Without it, we won't be getting anywhere!" She yelled. She folded her arms. "Any luck on finding Captain Archie and his crew of clowns?"

One of the men, a guy with hair and a thick beard as orange as her hair, wearing only some worn out jeans and a dark blue skullcap, poked his head out of the cabin. "Nope. We've been searching all over for his ship but no dice. He's out there somewhere but it's nowhere close!"

"D*** it! I hate it when he does that. He's so good at hiding…what a drag," she said. She sighed. "Oh well, set a course for Moon Island!"

"What do we do with this guy?"

She shrugged. "Lock him up in one of the empty rooms. Guard the door too, I don't want him getting any funny ideas!"

"Lock me up? Now hold on just a—"

"Quiet, the captain's word is law! Now come with us!"

They dragged him below deck, literally before throwing him inside a small bedroom with two mattresses lying on the floor and…not much else to be honest. They shut the door behind him and he heard it lock. He got to his feet and walked over to the mattresses to lie down. He did but the middle of them slumped inward, not leaving him with a very relaxing bed but he would just have to make due.

He didn't know how long he had been asleep but he felt like it hadn't been long enough. He sat up but before he could even yawn, he could hear voices on the other side of the door. He rolled off the mattresses and walked over to the door so he could hear well. "We've been searching these seas for hours…days even! What does the captain hope to accomplish?"

"You know exactly what she wants…she wants that treasure. The legendary treasure of Captain Redbeard."

"You mean the treasure that is basically a myth? No one really knows if it exists or not. Especially since he had a habit of sinking his treasure to the bottom of the sea."

"Whether it's a myth or not doesn't matter to her. She only wants to get to it."

"I'm getting tired of it. I'm getting tired of being under her thumb. She works us like dogs and lives in luxury. What's the point?"

"I tell you…I hear the crew with Captain Archie are often in much better spirits."

"Are you suggesting we…leave this ship and join with him?"

"Trust me, we aren't the only two fed up with her iron fisted rule. Not by a long shot…"

"Soo…mutiny?"

He didn't like the sounds of that, at all. Just his luck, he got kidnap by pirates and now it seemed her crew was ready to turn on her. Talking about walking into a powder keg. He shook his head. He would just figure out a way to escape and get back to Hoehn. The two men outside stopped talking when he heard Kasumi. "Hey, what are you two jacka***** doing?"

"We're guarding the landlubber like you asked us to!"

"Yea, we haven't left our post once!"

"Well stop guarding him and get you're a**** out to sea! We've stopped here in the middle of the ocean and I've sent everyone out to see if they can find Archie. I need all the eyes and ears out there so you two need to get out there!"

"What about the guy inside? If he's left alone—"

"Did I ask you to worry about him? No, I told you to get out to the sea and search for Archie! Now get out of here!"

He heard a bunch of footsteps and he figured the two had run off. She opened the door a few minutes later and flung a mop at him. He caught it and looked down at it. "And…what am I doing with this?"

She put her hands on her hips. "What do you think it looks like?"

"A mop?"

"And what do you do with a mop?"

"You're gonna make me scrub the deck, aren't you?"

She winked at him. "You catch on fast!"

Usually scrubbing the deck of a ship for the first time would be a big time pain but thanks to getting dragged to some training sessions with Chuck and Lt. Surge, he had more than a bit of experience scrubbing the deck of a ship. Kasumi sat on a chair, lying under an umbrella like a lifeguard but by the time it looked like she had gotten comfortable, he had finished. He set down the mop and cleared his throat. She looked over at him. "What?"

"What? I'm done!"

She took the sunglasses off her face. "How does a weak looking landlubber like you…"

"I've had to do a little training and scrubbing the deck of a ship was part of it," he said as he wiped some sweat from his forehead. Kasumi leaned forward on her knees and frowned.

"So you think you're hot stuff, don't you?"

"Only you're the one saying that."

"You're a real smart a**, aren't you?" She asked. She hopped down onto the deck and began to inspect it. He stepped out of the way and sat down while she did her inspection. She did this for a good fifteen minutes before she nodded. "Not bad for a weakling like you."

He ignored her and looked out across the ocean. In the distance he could see a few Goldeen leap out of the water, followed by a Magikarp. Not too far behind them were a few blue fins in the water, some Sharpedo looking for a snack probably. He let out a sigh and heard her chuckle. "What is it now?"

"Nothing. Is this the first time you've been out on the ocean or something?"

He shook his head. "Nope but I've only been out on the ocean once."

"Well luckily for you…you'll see so much of the freaking ocean that you'll soon get used to it!"

You call that lucky? "I thought this was just a temporary thing. Help you find whatever you're looking for and then—"

"This isn't temporary! You're gonna be here for the long run."

He looked back at her. "Why? I'm not a sailor; I don't even know the first thing about being on a ship full time. I am not your guy, you might as well go find a sailor in—"

"I'm going to make you're a** the best sailor around! Not just the best sailor, but also the second best pirate! Behind me of course."

His eyes grew wide. "What, a pirate? I helped put Pokemon gangsters in jail…why would I turn around and become a pirate?"

She laughed as she put her hands on her hips. "You don't have a choice. Besides…you're one of the most powerful Pokemon trainers around, you will be a great addition to my crew."

He could imagine how well that would go over with a crew ready to mutiny her. "That's nice but I'll pass."

She grabbed him by the arm. "Again, I didn't say you had a choice, now did I? You still have a long way to go before you are an adequate enough first mate—"

"Your crew isn't going to go for that at all."

She shot a glare at him. "Who's the f****** captain of this ship? Me! And I decide who is who, who does what and whatever!"

He nodded, if only to calm her down. Yep, he was gonna start thinking of a way to get off this ship pronto. Making some newcomer who doesn't know the first thing about ships the first mate? With a crew ready to mutiny? "I understand wanting to recruit a guy who is a powerful Pokemon trainer but there's another for recruiting a guy to work on a ship…who has never worked on one before!"

"So? Everyone has to start somewhere!"

Should he let her know her crew was ready to mutiny on her? Or was she even the kind of person that would care? Probably the latter. Even if he did tell her, she wouldn't care at all. "I see."

"Since you're so good at scrubbing the deck, you can clean the kitchen too!"

By the time the rest of the crew had returned, he was laid out on the deck from exhaustion. She had forced him to clean a good portion of the ship without a break or even food or water. He stared up at the night sky as the other pirates walked by him and mocked him for his troubles. Bunch of jerks, he would have loved to wiped the smirks off their faces but sadly; he would just have to play nice. He may have been a strong trainer but trying to defend himself against a whole ship of angry sailors was…not a plan he had in mind.

Once again he was tossed back into that room, this time with some food, some…gray looking soup that looked sickening, along with some hard bread. Some First Mate! He let Wiggler out of his ball, which looked a bit better than last time, having slept off the pepper spray. He looked at the food and let out a squeak. "Yep, it's awful. I'm gonna have to send a complaint to the chef."

Wiggler picked up the spoon and began to wave it in the air. He shook his head. "No, I'm not going to let you become the ship's cook!"

Wiggler gave him an angry look and he held up a finger at him. "Hey, remember the last time you tried to cook something? It was for the female Jigglypuff you had your eye on. You tried to make some soup for her…soup! And it ended up burning a hole through the pot, the stove….the floor—"

Wiggler let out a squeak saying he was making stuff up. "Nope, sorry. I remember because I had to clean up your mess! We had to get a new stove because of that!"

Wiggler let out a mischievous squeak and his eyes grew wide. "W-wait…oh…oh I see what you're saying. Make them all sick to their stomachs with your food so we can make our escape? That…I like it. We'd have to talk Kasumi into letting us do it. We shouldn't kill them but just give them enough pain where we can make our escape plain and clear. By the time they recover, we should be back in Hoehn…right?"

Wiggler frowned and he did as well. "Yea…we also don't know how far away from Hoehn are we? Juan isn't known for being a fast swimmer, at least not when someone is riding on him and…we would have to do it when we're closer to Hoehn."

The door to the room flung open, the wind from it knocking Wiggler into the opposite wall. Kasumi stood in the doorway and pointed a finger at him. "Hey you, clean up duty!"

"Clean up…but I just got through cleaning half the ship and now—"

She stomped her foot, even though she was wearing only a sandal. "I said cleanup duty, not argue or whine with the captain! You're the First Mate and first mates don't cry or whine like little girls. They suck it up, fat lip and all, before they go out and do what's asked of them!"

Funny, he never remembered hearing the First Mate was nothing more than slave labor. Shoot, slaves probably got treated better! He got to his feet though, knowing he would just have to play nice until the right time came.

She dragged him down to the kitchen and cafeteria area and when he entered, it looked like a war zone. The cafeteria looked very much like a school cafeteria, complete with large rows of tables with hard benches and the walls complete with pictures of various marine like settings but every table was plastered with food, overturned bowls and pools of soup spread out across the floor. The kitchen, full of steel…everything, was filled with huge stacks of dirty bowls and silverware. He looked over at her and as expected, had a mop thrust in his direction. "Get to work…and don't even think about taking a break because I'll be watching you!"

Shouldn't she…be trying to pay more attention to her crew who was losing patience with her? "Won't your crew—"

"Do I need to tell you again who is the captain of this ship?"

He shook his head. "Nope. So…you're a pirate right? When do you do the interesting stuff, like hunt for buried treasure or…well I'm not interested in stealing from other ships or people—"

"Oh so you're warming up to the idea?"

He began mop up some of the soup. "No way! I'm just sick of being on eternal clean up duty."

She smiled. "Oh but didn't you yourself say that you didn't know the first thing about being on a ship, right? The only way you'll learn is by working on it and working hard!"

"And you couldn't get one of your crew members to do it? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing a captain should be—"

"You don't ask the questions around here, I do. I'm in charge and I'm gonna work you to the bone!"

He had gotten perhaps half finished with the task when they heard a loud foghorn. Kasumi jumped to her feet just as the door opened and that red bearded guy walked in. "What is it Cory?"

"Captain, it's another ship. We think it belongs to Captain Lanturn!"

"Captain who? Did he really name himself after a Pokemon?" Ethan asked.

"Oh so he wants to dance huh? Prepare for battle! We aren't going to take his s***! Let's go!" She said before turning to him. "As for you, keep working!"

She and the other pirate left and he shook his head. She forces him to join because she respects his skill as a trainer and then when it's time to battle, she tells him to stay below and clean the kitchen?

A few minutes later, something rocked the ship, knocking him off his feet and into one of the tables. He winced a bit from the pain in his back but he got back to his feet and tossed the mop aside. "That doesn't seem good. I wonder what's going on?"

He got his answer soon enough as he could hear a bunch of voices up above, yelling and screaming at each other. Soon it devolved into a battle, the ship shaking from the throes of battle. He looked over at Wiggler and Bolt, his Joltik but both looked about as amused by it as him. Well Wiggler was, hard to tell from Bolt's expression since he was a tiny mite. Well Kasumi told him to keep cleaning the kitchen so that is what he planned to do. The doors to the cafeteria burst open and a boyish looking guy strode in. He wore a pair of washed out jeans and a white shirt but wore something akin to a hat looking like the head of a Lanturn, including a little light dangling in front of him. He looked around the cafeteria, past him a few times until he finally noticed him. "Hey you! You're part of Kasumi's crew, aren't you?"

Wiggler let out an amused squeak. "I wouldn't say that. I'm just the slave labor."

The guy looked confused. "Huh, you are?"

"Of course. If I were a part of the crew, wouldn't I be above deck, helping with the fighting? Why do you think they keep me here, below deck, on cleanup duty?"

"Oh…well. I guess I'll leave you to your work then," he said as he turned around. He winked at Wiggler who let out a soothing and calming tune that had the guy down and out in on a matter of seconds. He had the worst snore though, loud and very nasal sounding. He dragged him over to a corner of the cafeteria and lay him down in a pool of soup.

"Not very bright is he?" He asked Wiggler and Bolt. He tossed the mop aside. "Well I was getting bored anyway, let's go see what's going on upstairs!"

By the time they got above deck, there were quite a few of Captain Lanturn's crew on Kasumi's yacht, battling it out with her very own pirates. The hilarious part of it, aside from the goofy hats they wore, was that both crews were using water Pokemon. The fight was a stalemate and he could see why they weren't getting anywhere. He ducked a water gun attack and began to search for Kasumi but he couldn't see her anywhere. He looked across at the adjacent ship, a yacht a bit bigger than the one he was on but it was painted black and had a flag with a Lanturn wearing an eye patch, flapping in the wind. Standing near the cabin was a tall man with long blond hair but a thick beard dyed blue, of all colors. His buccaneer hat had a strobe light dangling in front and he even had the outline of a Lanturn tattooed on his chest! He only wore a pair of dark blue jeans and one dark yellow boot, along with a peg leg for the other. Who dressed this clown? Were all the pirates this colorful? He looked around but no one seemed interested in the old Captain so why not him?

Captain Lanturn laughed as he hopped onto his yacht and folded his arm. "Arr… and who might you be? A scrawny landlubber?"

"What is a landlubber?"

He stomped his peg leg. "Arr, a landlubber is a lover of the land. Not a real man but a scrawny girly man who is too scared to get his feet wet and smell the sea!"

"The sea smells nice and all but—"

"But? But nothing! You aren't even worthy to be on the same boat as me! Arr…ye think just because ya step onto a boat, that makes you a pirate?"

He shrugged. "So does being a pirate mean being an idiot as well?"

"What?!"

He chuckled. "Do you have any other Pokemon than Lanturn? Or anything that isn't a water Pokemon?"

Lanturn stomped his peg leg. "I don't know need anything else! I've lasted for years on these seas with my trusted Lanturn and I'll continue to do so."

He took out a Pokeball holding Juan, his Ludicolo and chuckled. "That's because you fight nothing but Water Pokemon. Big whoop there man!"

Lanturn laughed as he summoned his Lanturn. "You talk big words landlubber but you'll be taking those words all the way to—"

"Yea yea, to Davey Jones' locker or something like that. Stop watching so many pirate movies."

"Lanturn, blast this freaking landlubber off my ship!"

His Lanturn floated forward and waved its flippers in the air as the light attached to its head lit up. Juan quacked and spun around like a top, sending leaves flying toward the Lanturn like deadly missiles. Lanturn let out a chirp as he struck down each of the leaves with a well-timed thunderbolt. His eyes grew wide as it continued to stop Juan's attack. However, it couldn't strike down every leaf and soon, a few got through its impressive defense and hit him. Juan stopped spinning for a moment and looked stunned that Lanturn was still standing.

"Arr, you'll have to try harder than that! Grass attacks…Lanturn knows how to defend against those!"

And being on a boat saved him from exploiting his other weakness too. He looked to his shoulder where Bolt sat. "Hey, latch on to that Lanturn and drain his electrical power. Juan will keep distracting him in the meantime," he whispered to him. Bolt hopped off but thanks to his small size, Lanturn would probably miss him. "Well I guess I'll have to try a little harder this time," he said. He gave Juan the signal to keep distracting the Lanturn and Juan let out a quack to say he understood.

"All right Lanturn, enough defensive action. Turn the tides and wash this landlubber out to sea!"

Juan unleashed another Razor Leaf attack but instead aimed for the old Captain instead. His eyes grew as wide as dinner plates as he was forced to dive into the water. He came up for air and cursed at Ethan. "Hey, I'm just doing what you said a real man does, let him taste the sea!"

"Cursed landlubber! You think this is some sort of game?" He asked as he climbed back onto the ship. Juan aimed another attack at the flag but Lanturn zapped the leaves out of the air again. Man did that thing have impeccable aim. "And how dare you touch the flag of an old buccaneer! That's treason, you do not touch the flag of a buccaneer!"

He put his hands into his pockets. "Guess what? I just did? What are you going to do about it?"

Captain Lanturn scratched his beard. "You got guts landlubber. Stupid guts but guts."

He shrugged. Juan and Lanturn continued to trade attacks but he could see Bolt attached to the underside of one of its fins, ignored as usual. It wouldn't take him too long to have an effect but a little help couldn't hurt. "I'm a pretty decent trainer myself."

"Maybe ye are. I was expecting Kasumi to come and fight but instead she sent her guard dog."

"I'm the slave labor, thank you very much."

"Slave labor who holds his own, against one of the best pirates of the sea. Perhaps you really are the captain!"

That wouldn't sit well with her. By the way, where was Kasumi? Shouldn't it be customary for the two captains to face each other? And yet she was nowhere to be found! Lanturn suddenly let out a cry of pain and they looked over at him. "I think something's wrong."

"Arr Lanturn, what be troubling ya?"

Bolt hopped off and finally the old captain noticed. "Looks like poor Lanturn had a mite problem."

"Arr…what might that be?"

Juan let out a loud quack as he unleashed a powerful beam of solar energy, knocking the Lanturn flat and on its back. Captain Lanturn gasped while Ethan smiled. "While we were busy, my little spider mite here, Bolt, was draining the electrical energy from him, weakening him considerably. Juan just did the rest."

"Arrr…I've been had?"

He folded his arms. "Yes, you've been had—"

"Like hell I've been had!" He yelled as he stepped forward and swung his fist at him. Ethan stepped back to avoid it but tripped and fell into the water. He swam back to the surface but could hear Lanturn barking out orders. "All right men, we've had our fun but let's get going!"

He watched as a bunch of the men with hats like Lanturns hopped onboard and he noticed smoke coming from Kasumi's yacht. They must have done some damage while the two of them were battling…man he must have been really distracted. Lanturn's yacht sailed away and he swam back to Kasumi's yacht but…no one seemed eager to help him up. He looked over at Juan and Bolt who sat atop Juan's head and frowned. "We help drive away the pirates and this is the thanks we get?"

Kasumi leaned over the edge of the yacht. "Hey, where the f*** where you? I thought I told you to clean the kitchen!"

"I got bored."

"You don't defy the captain's orders! And just to take a dip in the ocean!"

He pointed a finger at her. "For your information, I was taking on Captain Lanturn while you were nowhere to be found! And I chased him off as well. Funny, I thought that's what the captain was supposed to do!"

"I was busy!"

"Likely story," he said. He chuckled. "Well I'm gonna be leaving now—"

He didn't get to finish as he heard a loud roar behind him. He turned to see not one but two Gyrados hovering over him, a blue and red one. Followed up by a Lapras as well. He heard her chuckle. Yep, he wasn't going anywhere for now.

For his troubles, he was tossed back into the bedroom, without one of his Pokemon but at least he didn't have to clean up the kitchen. He let Wiggler out and told him about the fight. Wiggler didn't seem cool with the idea that he got punished for helping take out a pirate leader. "Yea it does suck. I do all the hard work and I get punished! I tell ya, I can't wait until I get off this stupid ship!"

He eased closer to the door, curious if he could hear more gossip. He remembered the guards were different but perhaps there were a bunch of loose lips on this ship. "That battle didn't go all that well, we lost several men today!"

"You're telling me…we weren't prepared at all for the attack! Our captain was too busy working this…new guy to death and not busy enough being the captain!"

"What does she see in him anyway? I've never seen a lesser pirate."

"Well…he did chase off Lanturn. Without any help either. What was Kasumi doing? Nothing!"

"He did chase off Lanturn. You think…they've been saying she wants to make him the First Mate now. I don't like the idea of replacing capable pirates, especially someone who isn't fully onboard with us!"

"I did hear that too and it's garbage! This guy won't become a pirate! He doesn't have it in him! He's happier defeating pirates than being one. And if she doesn't watch him…close enough, it could be trouble for all of us. I don't like it."

"And she allows him to keep his own Pokemon with him! I feel like…we're being set up or something."

"I don't like it either. I don't trust her or him."

"From what the others said, they seem just as uneasy about the whole situation. Add on the fact we lost some good men today because she was screwing around and we were only saved in part thanks to this landlubber…ugh."

He and Wiggler exchanged a concerned look. At first he thought it was bad but now it was looking even worse. Now all of a sudden he was part of the problem too? And all he did was help them out! Was the entire ship full of ungrateful jerks? It was almost hilarious. Push come to shove…if they had to fight their way out, he was sure Wiggler and the others could handle them easily. It was just that getting back to Hoehn part…no telling how far away they were now. Maybe he would just have to kick everyone out, force one of them to stay on to drive the ship and take him back to Hoehn. "I've put out the word to Archie. Our ships should meet tomorrow afternoon. We can then deal with those two and finally be rid of that devilish woman."

And her ship was full of idiots…who whisper about their plan to deal away with someone…when they're locked inside the room you're guarding? They grew quiet soon after so he decided it would be best to try and get some sleep, even if he was a bit hungry.

He must have had a nice and long peaceful sleep because he was awaken in the morning, not by the sunlight coming through the window in his room but by Kasumi kicking him in his side. He shoved her foot away and rubbed his sore side. "What's the big idea? Why don't you just give me a gentle shake like most normal human beings?"

She reached down and pulled him off the mattresses, almost causing him to fall on Wiggler, but he rolled out of the way at the last minute. He got to his feet and squeaked in anger at her, also not pleased to be roused awake. "You're pathetic! Why are you sleeping in?"

He yawned. "Well what time is it?"

She folded her arms. "It's about five in the morning."

"F-F-Five? How is that sleeping in?!"

"It is when you've got more work to do!"

His stomach growled and he sighed. "Can I get breakfast first?"

"No!"

"Even after I helped chase that pirate off, even after I helped saved the ship…I can't get a bite to eat?"

"What part of no don't you understand? The no part…or the part where I said no?"

He grumbled to himself as she yanked him up by the arm. "What now?"

"Chin up! I'm not going to make you clean the kitchen or scrub the deck. I'm gonna teach you some more about being a pirate!"

"Like?"

"You'll see!"

So what more did she have to show him? So far all he had done was cleaning duty…he hadn't learned anything about the ship, how it works or what to do on it. And what made it worse is that the crew was furious with how distracted she seemed to be…maybe he should say something? Part of him didn't want to bother considering she liked to work him to death and was super ungrateful but then again…he would need someone's help to get back to Hoehn.

"Kasumi, we need to talk."

She looked over at him as they walked up the hill of a small tropical island. "What is it?"

"Why are you doing this? Why are you going to all of this trouble to make me your first mate?"

She rolled her eyes. "Didn't I already explain it to you?"

"Yes about me being a capable trainer and how I would make a valuable ally, yea I get that part but it seems still like way too much trouble. You want me to become a pirate, when I just got through putting away a gang of Pokemon criminals. You want me to serve on a ship, when I've never done it before."

She laughed. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Well…no."

She sighed. "I call myself a pirate but…to be honest, we don't do a lot of pirate things anymore. I'm more interested…right now, in finding and hunting for treasure."

"So you're a bunch of pirates who don't do anything."

She frowned. "We have done a bunch of stealing in the past but ever since I've been after this legendary treasure, we haven't bothered. I think most of the crew isn't keen on the idea. Maybe once we find that treasure we can go back to pirating but…"

"So you're more of a treasure hunter?"

"Maybe! Who knows? I knew you would go for something like that—"

"What makes you think that?" He asked.

She winked at him. "You seem like the…adventurous type. The kind of guy who can't sit still for long. That's why I lured you out here."

"Lured me out? How did you do that?"

She laughed. "With that orb of course! I left it there, hoping you might come around. I didn't expect you to just sit out on the beach and relax."

"Isn't that kind of risky? What if someone else had gotten curious and explored the area?"

She shrugged. "I kick their a** and take it back?"

"Well now I feel kind of stupid…"

She laughed. "That you were lured into this adventure? Why should you? No one would have been able to figure it out. Now…we are out here for a reason. One of the big things about being a pirate…other than pillaging ships and making people walk the plank—"

"You still have people walk the plank? I didn't see it on the ship," he said with a smile. She sighed.

"We keep it hidden below deck but we still use it from time to time but stop changing the subject!"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay."

"So one of the most important skills of being a pirate is finding hidden treasure. We don't trust the corrupt banks…so that's why we bury the treasure."

He folded his arms. "Really? I always wondered why you guys buried the treasure you worked so hard to steal—"

"Like I said, those freaking banks are so corrupt, I wouldn't trust those f****** nerds with my money, no sir! Of course the fun thing about it is trying to find a good enough spot to hide it and making sure that while it's a spot you can remember or easily track down—"

"It has to be hidden well enough that no one else will suspect the treasure is buried there."

She winked. "You've got it. So I've hidden some treasure on this island and I want you to find it. I'll tag along but I won't tell you where it's hidden because that would just defeat the purpose."

He frowned. "Do I have to do it by myself or can my Pokemon help me?"

She pursed her lips and winked at him again. "No Pokemon either!"

Wiggler let out an annoyed squeak but he just sighed. He would just have to play along…again. He turned toward the line of palm trees that lined the beach and folded his arms. "Well…have it your way…captain."

Once you got past the initial line of trees, he found that the interior of the island was a bit more open and easier to travel around. There were far less palm trees but the trees that were around, blocked out much of the sunlight, with only small patches getting through. The ground was littered with various plants and he could tell it would be pretty tough to tell just where she buried the treasure. He heard some sounds above and saw a Chimchar swinging from the branches. "Huh, that's pretty rare. I don't see those guys around very much."

"Are you usually easily distracted by stuff like that?" Kasumi asked.

"Why not? Chimchar aren't very numerous Pokemon. If I had a spot on my team, I would capture him—"

"We didn't come here for you to capture Pokemon! Remember that!"

He looked around the area. It was gonna be tough to figure where she buried it. She wouldn't be dumb enough to leave obvious clues, so he would have to figure out another way. If he were she…where would he bury it? He could rule out the areas where the light shone in on…those would be too obvious. Anywhere near the trees would also be out of the question because the roots would make digging a pain. And those were some pretty big trees so the roots probably spread out pretty far too. So it would have to be a spot a good distance away from the trees and…he began to nod as he thought he noticed a spot. He walked over to the area, a small patch of ground with some ground shrubs. There weren't any nearby trees or light and the ground was kind of moist and soft. He got down to his knees and then it dawned on him…how was he supposed to dig for it? He looked over at her and she looked like she was doing her best to not smile. "Hey Kasumi…don't you guys usually bury this stuff pretty deep in the ground?"

"Oh…"

"Because you didn't give me a shovel! No pirate would be stupid enough to bury it that shallow so I think you're trying to pull a fast one."

"Oh…am I?"

Wiggler nodded and gave her a look. Even he thought something was up! "Yes…you've always provided me with the stuff I needed to do your crazy jobs before but why not now?"

She giggled. "You're right, I didn't bury it. I didn't give you a shovel but I was wondering if you would figure it out or if you would give it a shot with your bare hands."

"I doubt you would bother so why should I? So you have the treasure…"

She tugged on the string to her bikini top. "So your next assignment is to find out where…I have it hidden."

He turned bright red in the face and lost his voice. He could only muster a meek question. "W-what?"

She blushed. "I have it hidden on me, somewhere. And it's your job to find it."

He stomped his foot in the ground. "What, no way! I'm not going to do a freaking strip search!"

"What are you so scared about?"

He shook his head. "I'm not scared—"

"So then why won't you do it?"

He looked away. "I'm not playing your game. I know you have the treasure so doesn't that mean I've won?"

"Not until it's in your hand."

"I'm not playing your game. You may want me to play your game but I'm not going to play your game…"

She frowned. "I'm the captain…and don't you forget that. I also still have one of your Pokemon."

Wiggler let out a shocked squeak and then launched into a series of outraged squeaks…if you could call a squeaking Wigglytuff threatening. He seemed angrier about it than him. "Why? I figured out you have it…why do you want me to search you? I mean…you can't possibly—"

He didn't get to finish his thought as they heard a very loud foghorn, except it couldn't have been from her ship because that one sounded a bit different compared to this one. "Heeeey…that foghorn! I recognize it!" She said, as her eyes grew wide. Oh thank goodness the strip search idea was being dropped.

"Another pirate ship?"

"It belongs to that b****** Archie…but what is he doing way out here?"

That would be a good sign that he was planning to meet her ship and encourage the mutiny. He signaled to Wiggler and they hurried off. He ran through the line of trees but stopped a few feet short of getting onto the beach. Through the leaves he could see a large dark blue yacht with a blue flag and a strange symbol. It looked like a white circle with a pointed top and two bone legs. Two rubber rafts floated over to the shoreline, filled with pirates. All of them were decked out in the same outfits, black and white striped shirts and dark blue pants, along with blue skullcaps, which also had that same symbol. Standing amongst them was a large man who looked like he was ready to burst out of his suit. It was a dark colored suit with no shirt underneath but you kind of suspected that from a pirate, allowing him to show off his impressive chest. He had a thick black beard and wore a similar skullcap to the others. That had to be Archie.

He felt someone press against him and felt her breath on him. "Archie. F***-"

"Keep your voice down," he said. The rafts made it the shoreline and he hopped onto the sand. He stretched out his limbs and chuckled.

"All right boys, we're taking a rest here."

"How long of a rest?"

Archie laughed. "The deal is we meet up with those clowns on Kasumi's ship in the afternoon. They turn her over, we feed her to the Sharpedo and then we ransack her ship."

She gasped and he covered her mouth. "Heh."

"So we'll finally be rid of that wretched b****? Took long enough."

"Yea, I don't get why she's all that feared. They don't even do much in the way of actual pirate business. I think the whole ship is too squeamish—"

"That's not right," she said under her breath.

"I mean I know they used to but it seems they've been too busy trying to find that legendary treasure. The one of Captain Redbeard," he said. Archie folded his arms and looked up at the sky.

"What do you think captain? Is it real or just some sort of legend?"

"Ha, hell if I know. Everyone seems to have an opinion one way or the other about that treasure. It could be out there but that guy was also a jerk and loved to get a rise out of everyone. He loved to talk about where he buried this or where he buried that and each time, it turned out he was just bulls******* everyone. That's just how he rolled," Archie said. He stopped looking at the sky for a moment. "To waste all your time chasing after something that may or may not be real…pathetic."

"You sound a bit sad captain."

Archie chuckled. "You're only as good as your competition. If you're far and away better than everyone else, you'll get lazy, you'll lose your edge and soon you'll be cooling your heels in a prison somewhere. If you got people out there that can challenge you, keep you on your heels, you'll be better for it. I thought she could but well…look at her. Her crew is ready to mutiny on her because she's obsessed with a treasure that may or may not exist."

"And what about this guy? The crew said she's recruited some guy on her ship and he did pretty well in that recent Pokemon League Tournament."

Archie laughed. "Perhaps he'll prove to be the challenge I need. A guy like that sounds like a formidable foe."

Well…in a way he seemed a bit proud for someone to say that, even if it was a dirty pirate. Why did it seem that the only people who remembered his accomplishments…were just the criminals? He crept back from the line of trees and walked past her and further into the island. She continued to stay in her spot but he would worry about that. He looked at Wiggler. "Well…do you think we should invade the ship? I bet he wouldn't be expecting that."

Wiggler's eyes lit up and he smiled. "Yep…they think they can get the drop on us? Well, we'll show them a thing or two—"

"No," Kasumi said. She walked over to them and put her hands on her hips. She shot him a look. "Did you know about this?"

"About?"

"My crew."

He chuckled. "Oh well…yes, I did."

She reached forward to grab him by the throat but he jumped away. "You knew and you didn't tell—"

"You were too busy working me to the death and forcing me to become a pirate. Would you tell if you were in my position?"

"If you wanted to get on my good side—"

"What if I didn't care and just wanted to go home?" He asked.

"Your only hope to go home is to beat me and threaten to harm me unless I take you home."

Yea, that threatening part would be tough. She would probably just call his bluff and then what? "Thanks for the reminder."

She shook her head. "Okay so that aside, we know that my crew wants to turn me over to Archie and we can't let that happen."

Remind him again why he had to care? Oh right, she had one of his Pokemon again. "I suppose but what about Archie?"

"I want to kick his a** too—"

"How about we do this? I cause some trouble here for Archie while you go deal with your crew."

She shook her head. "No way! I want to go kick his a** now! He thinks he can just get away with this? I'll show him whose boss!"

He slapped his forehead. "Okay okay…we'll go together and give him a piece of…well your mind I suppose. Then after we're done, we can go back to your ship."

She smiled. "I like your idea but let me handle him. I've been itching to teach him a lesson or two for so long. You go cause trouble on his ship!"

They heard another loud foghorn but this too was different from Archie's. A grave look formed on her face. "What's wrong? We got even more pirates now?"

She grumbled. "They aren't really pirates. Well I guess they are in a way but that foghorn belongs to the infamous ghost ship, controlled by a bunch of trouble making ghost Pokemon. And they are pretty formidable."

"A ghost ship? Well now I've heard of everything. So now we have ghost pirates to worry about, in addition to Archie and his crew."

She grumbled. "Yes, just our f****** luck that those ghosts would show. We may be able to defeat Archie but—"

"We haven't even tried…to…well maybe…we don't have to worry about them," he said as he smiled. "Maybe we can just get them to focus on Archie, while we make our escape to your ship."

She tapped the side of her chin. "Well…I want to show him up but…that may just have to wait for later."

"Hey you, give me back my stupid cap!"

He grabbed her by the arm and they hid behind some shrubs. He could see a pirate enter the area, chasing after that Chimchar, who now had his blue skullcap in hand. The little chimp quickly scurried up a nearby tree and disappeared into the treetops. The pirate looked up after him and shook the tree a few times but to no avail. He eventually gave up and walked away. The Chimchar must have been annoyed that the pirate had given up the game so easily because he soon threw the cap down to the ground. He walked over to it and picked it up before turning to her. "What are you doing with it?"

He took off his hat and put the skullcap on. "I'll wear it when I mess with those ghosts. They'll see the hat and I'll lead them to Archie and his crew. While they're distracted, I make my escape."

"You make it sound so easy," she said with a grumble. He put the cap on and tossed his hat over to her.

"Maybe it is. Let's go Wiggler!"

They ran off in the direction of where the foghorn sound had come from, which was to the north. They emerged through the line of trees and saw what looked like a rotting schooner floating toward the island, surrounded by a thick fog. The sails on it were tattered, worn and full of holes but you could still make out the skull and cross bones symbol on the largest of sails. Large spider wells hung from every hole and crack in the ship and he could see several Haunters hanging around on the deck. The ship moved much quicker than any other boat he had seen and when they noticed him, it seemed to encourage them. Wiggler didn't look at all worried but then again, ghost attacks could do little to harm a normal Pokemon.

As the ship got closer to the shore, several Haunters and Shuppet floated toward them. Of course the Gastly line would make up most of the crew, the whole line was known for being mischievous by nature. Each of them wore a patch over one of their eyes but he wasn't sure if that really made them look like pirates, or idiots. One of the Haunters gave them a huge grin, its tongue hanging out like a dog. Wiggler pointed his little limbs toward his head and a yellow aura formed around his body. Looks like he had chosen to use Metronome at first but would he use it to do a random move or use it to remember one of the many moves he had used several times before? One of the other Haunter moved toward him but Wiggler let out an outraged squeak as he began to form a ball of purple energy in front of him. He launched it at the ghosts, who scattered like bowling pins but he wasn't done yet. He continued to lob Shadow Balls at the ghosts and while they didn't hit, it did keep them on their heels…that is if they had any.

Wiggler lobbed one final one but all of a sudden, a Gengar appeared and swatted the Shadow Ball to the side. Wiggler let out a squeak of surprise but he just patted him on the head for comfort. The Gengar didn't have an eye patch but wore a large pirate's hat, complete with purple feathers at the top. He grinned at them and snapped his fingers. Soon an army of Ghost Pokemon appeared before them, not just the Gastly line but also all kinds of ghost Pokemon like Drifloon, Duskulls, Yamasks and even a Golett or two. It was like a convention of ghosts and the only fully evolved one was the Gengar, who had to be the leader of the bunch. Wiggler looked at him and he gave him the signal to run.

They turned and sped back down the beach where Archie and his pirates were relaxing. While he wasn't a fast runner, he could bounce along just as well. Ethan looked back to see if they were still after them and while he couldn't see them, he had a feeling they were right behind, just playing the invisible card. Archie noticed him running toward them and put his hands on his hips. "Who the hell are you? You're not part of my crew!"

Ethan ran up to him and pointed to the cap. "Of course I am! I'm wearing the cap, aren't I?"

Archie grabbed for it but he scurried out of his grasp. "Like hell you are! You must have stolen that cap! I know every person on my crew and you aren't one of them!"

"Captain, I think we've got bigger problems!" One of the pirates said in a whiny voice. All of a sudden, the army of ghosts appeared, sending everyone into a panic. All of the pirates began to scatter and scramble for their Pokeballs but Archie didn't seem all that bothered. He produced a Pokeball of his own and summoned a Swampert. It let out a loud roar but the ghosts didn't seem bothered. Seeing their captain face the ghosts down seemed to fire up the other pirates because they stopped scrambling around like roaches and summoned their Pokemon as well. While the two parties prepared to fight, he and Wiggler snuck away back into the island. Kasumi had put his hat on her head and when he stretched out his hand to get it back, she refused.

"Sorry, I'm keeping it! So did it work?"

Wiggler let out an amused squeak. "Yep, the ghosts and Archie are fighting it out so we can get back to the ship."

She smiled. "Good, let's go! If we hang around too long, those ghosts might get curious!"

They hurried to the shoreline opposite where the battle was going and she summoned her red Gyrados. "Won't they see us?"

She laughed. "We'll sail out far enough so they won't get a good look at us. Besides, they have other things to worry about, like each other!"

He nodded. "Well…I guess that works," he said as he summoned Wiggler back to his ball.

"You know Ethan…you're still gonna have to find that treasure on me," she said with a coy look. He leveled his eyes at her and groaned. "What, you thought you got out of it because you got us out of this mess?"

"Whatever," he said. He turned around and frowned. Why did he have this feeling of dread? Had they really lost all of the ghosts?

"Hey stop lollygagging!"

"Okay, I'm coming!"


	2. Captain Cruel and the Tentacruel

"What the f*** kind of Pokemon is that?" Kasumi asked as he summoned Pitch from his ball. Pitch let out a chirp as he took his perch on his shoulder. He rubbed Pitch's head and smiled.

"He's a Rufflet, a Pokemon native to Unova."

"But you're from Johto."

"I know but me and my friends visited there for a mini Pokemon tournament and we caught some Unova Pokemon during that time."

"A tournament?" She asked. Pitch chirped and he tapped him on the head.

"Yea, it was between some gym leaders and trainers. It was unofficial and just done for fun. I won it actually—"

She giggled. "Oh so when it's unofficial, you win it but when it's an official tournament with TV coverage and everything, you don't."

His eyes grew wide and he glared at her. "Hey, that's a low blow! I only lost to Crystal in the official tournament…she helped teach me how to become a Pokemon trainer—"

"Yea but every teacher always expects their student to surpass them. You're doing a pretty bad job."

He folded his arms as they neared her ship. "It's not like I'm trying, she's just that good. I bet in time I'll get good enough to beat her. I'm still second best!"

"You better. I can't have my first mate known as only second best!"

"Why, because it makes you look better as a captain?"

She put a hand on her hip. "Well duh! Yes because it makes me look better as a captain but because…umm…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" She yelled. Really seemed like she was leading to something else but was too proud to say it.

They arrived back at her ship and a ladder was tossed down immediately. They probably wanted to still keep up the appearance that everything was cool. Even after she climbed up, they pulled up the ladder so he couldn't follow, leaving him stuck in the water, on the back of her Gyrados. "This really isn't funny guys!"

The Gyrados let out a growl and Pitch chirped a response at him that earned a stern look. "Pitch, watch it. You're a baby bird and he's a water dragon. If he wants, he could eat you up in one bite and no one would be the—"

"Hey you a**holes, you think you were just gonna get the drop on me? What makes you think you can betray me to the slimy Archie?" Kasumi yelled. The three of them looked up in time to see a few sailors fly over the edge of the ship and into the waters below. Was she really going to toss everyone off the ship?

He soon got his answers as more and more of the former crewmembers of her ship were tossed overboard like unwanted cargo. And it wasn't just the men themselves, but what looked like their belongings as well. She was being as thorough as possible and he also could see why she was the captain, she may have been a lousy pirate but she was large and in charge.

Soon the waters around the ship was littered with pirates and former crew members, looking a bit confused and bewildered by the experience. He noticed the ladder dangling over the edge and he climbed on, finally. He hauled himself onto the deck while she stood nearby with a Pokeball. "And where were you?!"

"They pulled the ladder up before I could board!"

She winked at him. "I was kidding, I didn't want you to witness that ugliness."

He and Pitch shared a look. "What ugliness?"

She summoned her Gyrados back to its ball. "Let's get out of here and make tracks for our original location!"

"Original location?" He asked. In this entire hubbub, he had forgotten they had actually been headed somewhere. Talk about detours.

"Moon Island, it's where I have my headquarters. Or one of them at least."

Thankfully they were able to travel out to the island without incident but for most of the trip, she didn't say anything, only sailing the ship without comment. He checked in on her every so often but she just continued to control the ship with a stern face on her look so he decided to just relax, happy to not be forced to clean the ship again.

Moon Island…he wasn't really sure if you could call in an island. It consisted of a small piece of land with a bunch of palm trees. The island resembled the shape of a crescent moon and the trees seemed to act as a mini wall for the large wrecked schooner that sat in the bay. A ladder hung from the cabin area, which sat high above the water. "Is this…really your hideout? It looks kind of dangerous."

She shrugged. "It's been that way for decades, it's not going anywhere. Everyone thinks its haunted so they stay far away…including my own crew. They like to stay far away so I have to take a raft to get here."

Pitch chirped and he looked over at him. "What, you're scared now? Since when were you scared of anything?"

"He's a terrible looking excuse for a parrot anyway. Get yourself a Chatot," she said.

"Hey, what's with you? Ever since we ditched your crew, you've been pretty quiet. You've barely said a thing and you've never been short on words."

She looked over at him with an icy look but he wasn't intimidated. Maybe her crew would cower under that look but she would have to try harder to intimidate him. "So? What's it to you?"

"Well until I can escape from your grasp and return to Hoehn…"

"Are you serious about that?!" She yelled. Pitch seemed amused by it but before he could fire off a smart aleck remark, he tapped his beak.

"You dragged me away while I was on vacation and onto a pirate ship of all things, to hunt for some treasure that may or may not exist. On top of that, you drag me around and force me to do all of the dirty chores as well as locking me in a little room and holding one of my Pokemon hostage!"

She put her hands on her hips and continued to glare at him. And he continued to not care. "So what?"

"Well if you don't want to become the captain of an empty ship, the least you could do is treat me better. It's pretty much why you don't have a crew now. I could hear them talking about you while I was locked up and they thought of you as a huge jerk, selfish and willing to drag them all along on some silly treasure hunt. You seemed to be totally out of sync with your crew…perhaps if you had been more in touch with them, you would still have a ship full of pirates."

"Is that so?"

He nodded. "That's how I saw it."

She sighed. "Well…if you wanted to know, I was really bugged about the fact they wanted to mutiny. I really thought everything was cool, that they were cool with our hunt for Redbeard's treasure. They never said a single word of protest to me."

He rubbed Pitch on the head. "That's because you're a tyrant. I know you're the captain and as the captain, you are the boss of this ship but they thought you were too hard on them. I thought you were too hard on me—"

"I had to be hard on you. I couldn't let my First Mate be a wimp!"

"I helped take down Team Rocket, I chased off a pirate captain…I don't think—"

"Okay okay, I get it a**!"

Pitch flew off his shoulders and flew over to her, firing off a series of outraged chirps. He reached over and pulled the spunky little bird back, just as she relaxed and a broad smile appeared on her face. She chuckled. "You're feeling better now?"

"No! How am I going to run this ship with one crewmember? But…if I didn't work you like a slave…and didn't hold your Pokemon hostage, would you stick around?"

Wait…what? Did she really ask that? If he had the choice, he would just turn tail and return to Hoehn but…for what? To sit out on a beach and do nothing? He had gotten into this mess because he was bored of the peace. It was pretty fun when Team Rocket was running around Johto, leaving Crystal, Lyra and him to scramble around and stop their plots but now that they had been beaten…it was pretty boring. Even if it might just be a myth, he was a little excited at the idea of chasing after some treasure. He had to admit; he enjoyed chasing off Captain Lanturn and tricking those ghosts into attacking Archie…more fun than he had in years. "Well?"

"Umm…well…if you were going to start being a little nicer to me…and you gave me back my Pokemon…I might be willing to stick around."

"Might or you will?"

He grinned. "I might."

"You don't think I can change how I treat you…"

He nodded. "If I were a betting man—"

She laughed. "Well you seem to be betting that I can learn from this, otherwise you would just turn tail and run!"

"Maybe I am."

"Good…"

The main room of the ship resembled a treasury, the floor littered with gold coins, gold plated items and gemstones. He had to wonder just how the ship supported the weight of all the treasure. "Why hasn't this all fallen into the water?"

"This ship is much sturdier than it looks. It's stood for decades, it's not going anywhere," she said. He knelt down and picked up a handful of gold coins. "Now wait here."

While she went off to do whatever, he walked over to a large circular table that sat nearby. The legs and the base were painted gold and the top of it had a red, felt like texture to it. Or something similar like a card table. Pitch hopped off his shoulders and walked on top of it, pecking at the table as he did. He must have liked it because he got comfortable on the edge of the table. "I wonder why she brought us here? Perhaps she'll explain more about this treasure."

Pitch let out a satisfied chirp and he walked over and fetched a gold plated Pokeball from the pile of treasure. He set it down on the table and Pitch eyed it. "I don't understand this, why would you cover a Pokeball in gold? It seems like someone got bored and just doused everything in liquid gold."

He chirped. "Yea, maybe it would look nice on a desk or something."

"The idea of treasure is the thrill of the hunt. You don't ask why this is that way or why they stuck the gem in the middle of a statue's a**hole, you hunt it down because it's there," Kasumi said. He turned and saw her reenter the room. She had lost the bikini and had changed into a bright yellow tee shirt with much of the bottom half cut off. She had on a pair of super short jean shorts, held up by some red suspenders, though only one of them was attached. He covered half of his face with his hand and sighed.

"Could you put a shirt on?"

"This is a shirt!"

"A shirt that barely covers your chest at best!" He said as he turned away. He felt her press herself against him and he froze up like a Popsicle stick. He forced himself to relax and not let her get the upper hand.

"So? I was just in a bikini earlier and you didn't mind."

"I've been hanging out in Hoehn the past week."

"Then you won't mind me wearing this."

Yes he would. He pushed her away by the arm. "So why did you bring us here to this hideout?"

She spread out a large weathered map on the table, knocking Pitch off, or at least pushing him off. He flew up into the air, firing off an angry chirp at her before taking his perch on his shoulder as usual. "I brought you here because I wanted to talk more about this treasure we're hunting for."

She also set down several colored orbs, just like the one he found. "How many are there?"

"One for each Pokemon type. I've already collected a number of them. About 10 in fact. The legend is that they unlock the door to his lost treasure—"

"So it's not buried?"

She laughed. "It's buried…and locked. Redbeard didn't want just anyone to find it. If you found it, it's because you really worked for it."

"So which ones do you still need?"

"I need the ones for fire, poison, steel, grass, ghost and dark. Those are the final ones I need. I'm also at a loss as to where they are."

He shook his head. "This is a big world…you could be searching for years."

"I know that but I don't have years! Or at least I don't want to search for years. Thankfully, I think I know where one of the orbs is. It's inside of an active volcano on a place named Dino Island."

Pitch didn't like the sound of that one. "Dino Island?"

"Don't ask me, that's just what they call it! Anyway, I believe that it'll be there so that's where we'll head next!"

He didn't like the sound of exploring an active volcano though. Exploring an island sounded cool but ixnay on the volcanic exploration! She leaned forward and smiled at him. "Active volcano."

"I'm a pirate, you're a pirate…exploring tropical islands with volcanoes, and angry natives and death traps is like part of the job! Just like sea battles, running from the authorities and going to the port towns and blowing all your money! Oh and don't forget stealing—"

"I thought you were tired of the pirate business."

"I kind of was but I'm just imaging all the fun we'll be having! I was pretty bummed about my crew trying to mutiny on me but I'm over that now."

Pitch gave him a worried look but he pat him on the head. "You being excited makes me worried."

"Whatever. Well let's—"

Before she could finish, they heard a loud quack. He looked up to see a chubby Golduck hop down from above their heads. He landed on the table and said something to her but it sounded like he was warning her about something…or someone. "An incoming pirate ship?"

She looked up at him. "Huh, you understand him?"

He held out his hand and tipped it like an unbalanced scale. "Just a tad but that's what it sounded like."

She frowned. "Well you're right, it looks like there is a ship headed this way. From what Golduck said, it belongs to Captain Cruel."

He laughed. "Let me guess, this guy's theme is Tentacruel."

She winked. "You would be correct. He's kind of my official stalker. He wanted to join my crew but I always thought of him as a creep so he decided to become a captain of his own ship to impress me."

"Some guys can't take a clue."

She laughed. "You bet! But that still doesn't mean we can ignore that we're kind of trapped. If he sees my ship, he'll know we're around here."

He rolled his eyes. "Trapped? Trapped? How big of a crew does he have?"

She shrugged. "Maybe ten to twenty guys, not a real big crew."

"We should be able to take them, right?"

He got his answer when he heard a loud crash. It sounded like it came from her ship and she hurried off at the sound of it. He followed after her and joined her at a window. A huge transparent blue tentacle rose out of the water and smashed into the side of the ship. Another one rose on the other side and began to pull the ship into the water. "H-h-hey!"

"I was kind of worried about this," she said. "He said something about finding the legendary giant Tentacruel and I just wrote him off as a complete idiot but it looks like he found and tamed it."

He looked over at her. "You sure are calm about this!"

She giggled. "This is gonna be a lot of fun!"

He took out the Pokeball holding Juan. "Whatever you say, hold that thing off while I prepare the mother of all thunderstorms."

She folded her arms. "I hold him off? I'm the captain—"

"And I'm armed with several Pokemon that are strong against water Pokemon."

She sighed. "Whatever…I have a Lanturn and a Starmie you know!"

"Can we just…okay…while Juan is summoning the rain storm, we'll both try to weaken it, deal?"

She laughed as she jumped out of the window. He poked his head out and saw her summon her Gyrados in midair. "Wow…that's a pretty slick move."

He looked at Pitch who just gave him an amused look. Yea, good luck imitating that with Pitch. Down below he could see a raft and figured he could use it to get to land.

By the time he got to the island, Kasumi's Gyrados and Starmie were already engaged with the giant Tentacruel. The thing that bothered him was where was this pirate? He looked down at Juan. "You know…I've got a better idea Juan, let's go track down that pirate. If we can take him out, I bet that giant Tentacruel will go away too!"

Juan quacked a cautious response. "Huh? I think Kasumi can handle herself, she used to be a gym leader and she already said she could handle it."

He still didn't seem too high on the idea. "She'll be fine Juan. Now let's get going!"

They got back on the raft and as they sailed around the island, he could see a yacht sitting a bit behind the island, hidden from view. He summoned Chase, his Litwick and had him turn them invisible. As they sailed out to the ship, he saw a few sailors standing on the deck, armed with binoculars, probably making sure no one would ambush them. Luckily for him, Chase had turned the raft invisible as well. They might notice the water but would probably write it off since they didn't see anything else.

As they got closer to the ship, the sailors that had been watching that side of the ship had walked over to the other side, to his relief. He grabbed onto Juan and pet him on the head as Juan unleashed Hydro Cannon, propelling the two of them up onto the deck of the yacht. He landed on his back, crashing into a nearby chair. He heard voices and saw several sailors run over. He pointed Juan toward them, who unleashed a powerful stream of water, knocking them into the drink. He grabbed the Pokeball holding Bolt but decided against it for now. "Hey, who is this twerp?" A sailor asked. They all wore similar outfits but their skullcaps resembled Tentacruels. Sure seemed like none of the pirates really went for original outfits. As they got closer, he realized the tentacles were actually dreadlocks instead.

Juan spun around like a top, sending a shower of leaves at the approaching pirates from one side. He turned to face the other pirates and Pitch flew off his shoulders and attacked the other incoming pirates. They scattered out of the way as the little bird flew in and he smiled. This was a bit easier than he thought. Suddenly the door to the nearby cabin swung open and a light blue whip snapped out of nowhere and latched onto his arm. It sent a jolt up his arm and down to his legs, causing them to go numb. The whip belonged to a guy dressed in a light blue suit, with the front pockets made of a red like gel which resembled the red spots on the Tentacruel's body. He wore a pair of pearl white shoes and on his head; he wore a large mask that looked just like a Tentacruel, with long rubbery transparent tentacles hanging from the edges. What a getup.

The guy motioned to his men and they scurried off. Cruel pointed at his Pokemon. "Don't try anything or else he will get it!" He said in a gruff voice but it kind of sounded like he was almost faking it. Something about it just didn't sound right. He pulled him into the cabin, which had another sailor at the wheel. "Get us closer to Kasumi's ship! Not too close though!"

The guy saluted. "Aye captain, I'm on it! Who is this?"

"Hah, just a stupid pirate who thought he could get the drop on Cruel. I didn't expect someone to come but this works in our favor!"

The pirate laughed as he dragged Ethan down some stairs, which led to a long narrow hallway. The floors were made of wood while all the walls were as nice and clean as the captain's shoes, which was pretty odd because he didn't see pirates as being the cleanest bunch. They stepped into a nearby room, which turned out to be empty. He tossed Ethan into the back of the room and closed the door behind them. "You know…I have to ask, is this how all you pirates deal with prisoners? First Kasumi and now you?"

He snapped his whip back and while he was glad to be free from its grasp, he still couldn't feel his legs. He rolled it up and attached it to his belt. "You could say that."

"So what are you going to do with me? Use me as bait?"

He folded his arms. "That's a rather good suggestion. I could use you as bait and I figure I will to lure Kasumi out to my ship…so I can…well now that would be telling."

He nodded. Of course it would be but he was hoping every pirate had a case of the loose lips syndrome. Cruel reached back behind his mask and removed it, revealing the face of a…girl?! She had short brown hair with part of it done similar to…Latias? Interesting look but he was more shocked Captain Cruel was a girl. "You're a girl?"

"The mask has a device that helps mask my voice. I've just let the rumor spread that I was in a horrible accident that disfigured my face and wear this mask to hide it."

He shook his head. "So you want Kasumi to—"

She giggled. "I admire her. She became a tough and strong pirate, in a field dominated by men! She's feared by many, respected by just as many pirates around the world and—"

"Are we talking about the same Kasumi?"

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the pirates I've met don't think too highly of her, especially since she's become so wrapped up in this hunt for this fabled treasure. She's certainly tough but she's a bit of a jerk…her entire crew tried to mutiny on her."

She put her hands on her hips. "And why are you telling me this?"

"I just thought you should know. It seems like you've got a pretty good thing going here. A crew that likes and respects you and your reputation not in shreds."

She laughed and leaned forward. "Are you just saying that because you want to her all to yourself?"

"Actually I'd—"

She laughed again. "Even if you're telling the truth and she really isn't the pirate I've grown to admire…she still is after Redbeard's treasure and—"

"You're after it too?"

She stomped her foot. "Like hell I am! I don't really see the point in wasting years going after a treasure that may or may not exist!"

He held out his hand, "Then why are you after her? She said it's because you're her stalker or the like."

Cruel brushed back her hair and gave him a broad smile. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?"

They heard a knock at the door and she quickly put the mask back over her head. "Captain, we have the attention of Kasumi but well I have some bad news sir."

"What is it?"

"It appears that she's defeated the giant Tentacruel. We thought she would have more trouble but—"

"Don't worry. We have our prisoner so we still hold the cards. Have you informed her yet of that?"

"Nope!"

She laughed. "Good job then. I'll be up there shortly."

Unfortunately to get him to be cooperative, she used her special whip on him again, ensuring his limbs would be useless for a while. She had said the effects would linger for several hours but he knew that with his luck, it would be much longer. Two of her pirates held him up by the arms while she stood nearby. Down below he could see Kasumi standing atop her Gyrados and when she saw him, she looked a bit…worried? "Kasumi, how's it going down there? What did you think of the Legendary King Calamari?"

"I think you're a bit of a coward sending it after me when you could have fought me mano y mano! Or I guess that would be woman y mano but you get the f***ing point!"

"I guess I do but you had fun, didn't you?"

"You call wrestling with a giant jellyfish fun? I'd really like to know what you consider not fun! And how did you capture my First Mate?"

Cruel laughed. "This is your first mate? Not a very sharp one…he fell right into our trap…we didn't have to capture him, he came right to us."

Kasumi looked over at him. "What does he mean by that?"

"I mean your first mate decided to take it upon himself to try and capture me! I'll give him points for effort but we were a bit prepared. To be honest, I was expecting you to pull the maneuver but—"

"You better release him!"

Cruel folded her arms. "Well…maybe…it all depends on if you agree to our deal or not."

"Deal?"

Cruel chuckled. "Well it's pretty simple, I know you've been acquiring those special orbs in your hunt for Redbeard's treasure—"

"What, you believe in the treasure too?" Kasumi asked. Cruel waved her off.

"Don't be silly. I don't believe in hunting for some mythical treasure that could be a fairy tale…I just think those orbs would look kind of nice in my treasury."

Kasumi grumbled. "So you take the orbs and I get him back?"

Cruel laughed again. "You know…I've got a better idea. I know you've been hard at work at hunting for those orbs and finding them is no laughing matter. How about I only take a few and I keep him on my ship?"

He looked over at her with a shocked look. She hadn't given any indication why she would even want to keep him around. Was she that impressed with his boldness or was she doing it just to mess with Kasumi? "What?!" Kasumi yelled. "Why would you even be interested in that clown?"

"Well I mean, if you made him your first mate…that must mean there is something you saw in him. If that's the case, then he'll make a great addition to my crew. Perhaps he can be the dumb muscle of the group."

"Hey…"

"The dumb muscle? But he's my—"

"Or you can give me all of those pretty orbs and you can have him back. Seems useless though since you no longer have a ship though."

"Thanks to you!" Kasumi yelled but Cruel could only muster a halfhearted shrug. "Augh…well—"

"I don't have all day either. We've got a concert to crash and if you don't answer soon, we'll just leave anyway!"

"If you're just gonna leave, why would I have to give up really anything?" Kasumi yelled.

"Because if we leave, we'll just stab him and dump his body into the water. I know the Sharpedo around here won't mind," she said and a chill went down his spine. She wouldn't do that…would she?

"I…okay you can have some of the orbs!"

"Some? So that means I get to keep him with me?"

Kasumi nodded. "Yea sure. He's too much of a loose cannon anyways. He went against our plan to try and do his own thing…he'll only cause you trouble."

"If he causes trouble, we'll deal with him."

"I'm telling you—"

"Just get the orbs so we can move along!"

While they did the exchange, he was dragged back to the same room and locked inside but at least they gave him back his other Pokemon. He let Wiggler out of his ball but as he did, he felt the ball with Pitch rattle around a bit as well. Wiggler noticed it and shook his head. "Oh stop it, if he wants to be out of his ball too, I can let him. Just behave."

Wiggler waddled over to a corner of the room and plopped down as he let Pitch out. Pitch took to his shoulder before looking around the room. "Yep, looks like we're stuck on this ship for now."

From his corner, with an annoyed look being directed at Pitch, Wiggler let out a squeak. "Well I guess those orbs were a lot more important to Kasumi than I thought. I for sure thought she would refuse to let me leave but it seems—"

Pitch looked at him and chirped. "Oh? Yea, I suppose she could just turn around and steal everything back. I wouldn't put it past her to—"

Before he could finish his thought, he heard the door unlock and Cruel walked in. She locked the door behind her before removing her mask. She smiled at him. "Ever hear the term, loose lips sink ships?"

"Ahh w-well that's kind of how the mutiny on her ship was thwarted."

She winked. "Then maybe you should keep that cute little mouth of yours shut sometime," she said as she reached out and tapped his cheek with her finger. "Hearing you say that has convinced me that she'll do just that! I was thinking she might just swing around and try to steal everything back, it's what pirates do but now we'll have to be on our guard big time!"

"Me and my big mouth."

She smiled. "I like it. You do seem kind of like a loose cannon but a loose cannon can be tamed…somewhat without losing some of the qualities that make it so unpredictable."

He shook his head. "I'm not a loose cannon—"

"Huh, isn't it true that you went against the plan you two had set out? That you decided to go off and do something else, without even telling your captain? Doesn't sound like someone who listens to orders very well!"

He folded his arms. "Yea well…"

"But you do seem like you have quite the versatile party…more varied than us or many other pirates and we can use that kind of muscle on this ship!"

"You said something about crashing a concert…"

She winked. "It's a concert taking place on an island not that far to the west of Hoehn. Roxanne and the Hard Nose Rockers are performing it and I have it on my good information that a bunch of rich snobs will be there. Snobs with pockets lined with treasure…they already have too much so we'll just help ourselves to it. Well at least my men will. The two of us will have a special role."

Wiggler let out a squeak and he had the same question. "What…role?"

"Well we'll make sure Kasumi doesn't ruin the fun…with a date!"

He leveled his eyes at her. "I'm not getting you at all."

"We'll take a long romantic boat ride, enjoying the wonderful ocean, the beautiful Pokemon flying through the air…and helping ourselves to her wonderful treasure at her hideout. While poor Kasumi will think we're all at the concert!"

That was kind of slick. "She's gonna be pretty furious about that."

"I know…but it's not something I'm really concerned about. She's a pirate, she knows how things are."

"I still don't see why you're so interested in me—"

"I'm sure I already explained it. You're sort of got that devil may care attitude about you, you do what you do without apologies, you aren't bound by the conventional way of making a team of Pokemon and you come up with plans on the fly, while sometimes pulling success out of you're a**. Plus you're cute…so why not?"

A few hours later, the ship sat a fair distance away from a large island where a stage had been set up. As he peered through the binoculars, he could see a decent crowd already growing in numbers. It appeared as if many others would watch from nearby boats or yachts since there wouldn't be enough room for everyone. The stage itself resembled a mountain, which seemed to fit since it was gonna serve as the backstage for a rock band. He felt someone tug at the binoculars and noticed Cruel yank them away. She put them up to her face, "Well well, look at all those rich snobs. Loaded to the teeth with jewelry and money galore."

"We are gonna have to be making a trip to Port Royal after this," a nearby pirate said.

"It's been a while since we've been there. I like that idea but first let's make sure this job goes as planned. You understand what you need to do?"

He nodded. "We do. We'll just go over there and crash the party, while robbing them blind."

"Good and like I said, I let it slip that we would be over there. I wouldn't put it past Kasumi to come there and try to take back the orbs. Sadly for her…we'll be ready for her. In the meantime, we'll invade her hideout and collect the rest of those pretty orbs."

"Be careful boss, she may have it booby trapped or—"

"Don't worry, we'll be ready for them."

"Right…and then whoever gets done first…"

"Return back to our hideout. We'll meet you there," she said. She turned and climbed down the rope ladder to the smaller yacht that sat nearby and he followed, under the careful watch of her fellow pirates. Unlike Kasumi's ship, they all seemed to work together as a team and get along; they would probably have a better shot at finding that treasure than anyone. Just a shame it seemed the only person interested in that treasure was Kasumi.

Pitch let out a loud chirp as the sailed along the calm waters. Cruel was at the wheel of the yacht, having lost her suit for a far simpler outfit with a red beret on the top of her hair, along with a black shirt with some royal looking emblems on the front with a pearl white mini skirt and some black shoes. Sailing alongside the yacht was a pair of Tentacruel and it got him thinking. "Are these the only Pokemon you have?"

"I'm Captain Bianca Cruel…what do you think?"

He nodded. "Well I just thought I should ask."

Bianca giggled. "To be honest Ethan…I have a few other water Pokemon…a Sharpedo, a Lapras and even a Mantine. Just my other three Pokemon are Tentacruel."

"Oh…how is that variety?"

"Isn't that what you're around for?"

He frowned. "I can't be around all the time. What happens if I'm busy dealing with another opponent and can't help you out?"

She laughed. "I'm still the captain and I've been on the seas for years…I've battled it out with other pirates, government officials…fearsome Pokemon…I think I can handle myself but when we're together, I expect you to back me up."

"So does the prospect of Redbeard's treasure—"

"I don't care about that treasure. Even if it is real…in the amount of time you're trying to hunt for all the other orbs and locate the treasure, not to mention dealing with all the traps and dangers that come with it…you could just spend that time stealing from other ships and towns and come out on top."

He shrugged. "What about the excitement? The thrills?"

She laughed again. "Excitement? Thrills? Those kind of things don't last. It's just a short lived feeling which goes away, leaving you empty and hungering for the next big thing," she said with a sigh. "Isn't that what your problem is?"

"What? My problem? What kind of question is that?"

"You seemed pretty interested in going along on that treasure hunt and I'm guessing that's why. You weren't in it for the treasure but the potential adventures…am I right?"

He felt a tad uncomfortable, like getting poked with a needle. She looked at him for a bit and nodded after a bit. "Well…I guess so."

"I notice those kind of things. Cheap thrills are good and all but you can't possibly be satisfied by it."

"So then why are you a pirate?"

She winked. "I already explained that one. It's all because of Kasumi…"

"Yea but aren't you out there for the same kind of things? Adventure?"

"Adventure…for the challenge of it all. Being a girl in this job is a big time challenge, no one believes in you, you get made fun of and it's hard to be taken seriously."

"No one knows you're a girl though. You just hide behind a mask."

"For now, I plan to reveal myself soon enough. As I was saying though, the challenge of it is what interests me the most. I've stolen quite a few things in my time, not just treasure but Pokemon, vehicles and even wills. For me, it's less about the getting and more about the hunting. Besides, I don't plan to make this a lifetime thing."

"You don't?"

"I would love to retire, settle down and live on a tropical island surrounded by enormous gardens."

Pitch seemed pretty amused by it but she ignored him. "That's not what I'd expect from a pirate. I thought you would just burn all your money on booze, food and—"

"First of all it's rum and second…no. When I said we should go to Port Royal after this heist, it was more for them. I don't bother going into town…of course now you know the reason why."

She stopped the boat and he noticed they weren't that far from Kasumi's hideout. He couldn't see anything that would indicate she was around. Bianca stood on the side and looked through her binoculars. "I see that bird that's on the lookout. It's only around when Kasumi is at her hideout."

"So does that mean she hasn't left? Or that she suspected you might pull this trick?"

Bianca set down the binoculars. "She's trying to pull a fast one on us. I hope you have your Pokemon ready, I have to stay at the wheel."

He sighed and took out the Pokeball holding Bolt. He tapped his fingers on it in a certain pattern and felt the Pokeball warm up. It was a sign for him to start charging up his stored up electricity for an attack. He didn't use it much but it could really hurt when used against Pokemon weak against those attacks, like water. Bianca began to move them closer to the ship, while he kept his eyes on the water. The Tentacruel had gone underwater as well but they surfaced without an indication of incoming trouble. "Nothing so far."

"We'll just keep our guard up."

They made their way to the ship and Pitch flew up into the ship before letting the rope ladder down. He flew back down and reported back to him, before looking at her. "He didn't see anything."

"For your sake, you better not be lying to me."

He shook his head. "Well aside from the fact you still have that whip on you and I'm still a bit weak thanks to it—"

"Then can you go up first?"

He shrugged and climbed up the rope ladder. It was a bit tough at first but he soon got used to the slight discomfort and hauled himself up. He looked around the area, from what he remembered, most of it had rotted away and they could get to one big room. She hadn't shown him anything else. He wandered into the main treasure room and glanced around. Pitch flew off into the back room where she had gotten dressed but returned with nothing new. "It's empty!"

Bianca followed up a few minutes later and her eyes got big at the sight of all the treasure. She knelt down and ran her fingers through the large pile of coins. She turned and picked up a few golden plated Pokeballs before tossing them to the side. "Okay now that's silly. What's the use of a gold Pokeball?"

"That's what I said."

She got to her feet. "Still this wasn't as hard as I thought."

"We still haven't found the orbs."

She nodded. "Yes, you're right about that. She has to have them around here somewhere…" she said as she walked past him. He followed her into the back room, which looked like a messy bedroom…if you could call it that, there wasn't even a bed around but only a large wooden dresser with a large oval mirror in front. Bianca shoved the stood aside and knelt down next to the dresser. "She's got them all locked."

He folded his arms. "Let me guess—"

She took off her beret and reached inside, taking out two small metal sticks. She put it back on and began to fidget with one of the locks. After a few minutes, she opened it up but the drawer was filled with just clothes. He stepped to the side as she began to toss the clothes out of the drawer with reckless abandon until she emptied it. She reached down and fished out a key in the bottom. "Now I wonder where this key goes?"

She tried it on another drawer and it unlocked it. "I can't believe she would make it that obvious."

"Well she did lock it first…oh look what we have here," she said. She opened the drawer further to reveal seven different colored orbs. She stood up and smiled. "Well…looks like we got what we wanted."

This was too easy…there had to be a trap or something. Bianca quickly stuffed the orbs in a bag and handed them to him. "So now what?"

"We leave. We got what we wanted so it's time to beat feet."

They made their way back to the yacht, without incident but she went below deck and came back with a large brown package in hand. She looked over at him, "Could you have your little parrot—"

"Rufflet,"

"Have him leave this up there on the ship," she said. He handed it to Pitch who did just that and returned a moment later. She started up the yacht and they began to speed off with her Tentacruel swimming alongside them. He looked back at the hideout and then at her.

"So…what's with the package?" He asked before a loud explosion ripped through the hideout. He stumbled back and fell on his butt as he saw the place go up in flames and parts of it beginning to fall into the sea. A large plume of smoke rose from it and he shook his head. "Oh."

"With any luck, that bird Pokemon will find her and let her know who was behind the attack."

"You're hoping she'll attack you? Are you sure you want that?"

Bianca giggled. "Oh I'm sure Ethan. I want to prove myself and taking her on is just one example of that. It'll go a long way to proving I'm someone you can't take lightly."

He sighed as he sat up. She pulled out a phone and dialed a number. He sat on the edge of the ship and glanced over at Pitch as he sighed. The prospect of actually having to do actual pirate stuff didn't appeal to him one bit. The weird thing is that while he had gotten himself psyched up for the idea of treasure hunting, he still wasn't all that fond of Kasumi. Bianca seemed a bit more pleasant but it sucked she was actually interested in being well…a pirate. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place…maybe he would be better off going back to his normal life. He heard her laugh and he spun around. "What is it?"

"Oh, my men said they ran into a little trouble in the form of Archie. I guess he decided the concert would be a good place to visit as well and now…we have a good old' sea battle going on."

"Are we going there to help?"

She shook her head. "Nope. He told me that they have things under control. Kasumi didn't show up sadly but I'm sure she'll be around soon enough. We're gonna meet them at Port Royal."

"Instead of your hideout?"

She winked at him. "Kasumi would expect that, for me to get overly happy and want to go back to my hideout at once but we're not going to do that."

"I thought you hated Port Royal."

She nodded. "Well I hate the debauchery that goes on there but there are other parts of the city that are nicer. That is where we can visit."

He shrugged and stared off across the ocean. In the far distance he could see a few Pokemon leapt into the air before going back underwater but for the life of him, he couldn't recognize what Pokemon it was. It really didn't look like any Pokemon he had seen before. He leaned forward a bit before he began to lose his balance. Before he felt into the water, Bianca grabbed him by the arm and steadied him. He looked back at her. "Sorry, I just thought I saw a Pokemon I hadn't seen before."

"Huh?"

"It was out there in the distance…it didn't look like any Pokemon I had seen before."

Bianca let go of his arm and walked back to the wheel. "If we had time to spare, I would be up for looking for it but if Kasumi shows up again…"

"You're not confident you can take her? That doesn't sound like confidence right now."

She laughed. "I'm not in the mood right now to take her on. We'll fight on my terms, not hers."

They sailed on the ocean for hours until the evening gave way to nighttime. They came across a small island with a little cove. The island itself had only a few coconut trees in the middle and much of it was just sand. Wiggler shoved the anchor over and let out an annoyed squeak in his direction. "Stop whining. If you're part of my crew, you have to do your part too," Bianca said. Wiggler gave her an annoyed look while he was at it before lying down to rest. He felt like joining him but judging by the look on her face, bedtime wasn't on the menu just yet. She hopped off the boat and walked up the sandy beach. "Interesting."

"What is it?"

She got down on her knees in the sand and dug her hand into it. "Something about this island reminded me of a fondness Redbeard had for obscure places like this."

"Huh, Redbeard? I thought that—"

She pressed a finger against his lips. "Just because most of us think that mythical and legendary treasure of his is silly, he still existed and still has lots of treasure hiding out there. It's just that specific treasure is supposed to be greater than all the rest."

He nodded and she went back to digging. He had to admit, it looked a bit odd to see a girl dressed in a miniskirt, digging into the sand hunting for something and she must have thought so too because she cast an annoyed look at him. "Don't you think it's rude to make a girl do all the work?"

"Huh? Well, what am I even looking for? A treasure chest?" He asked as he dug his hands into the moist sand below. He dug around a bit, clawing away at the sand before his hand came across something solid. He got closer to the ground and felt around more for it. "I think I feel…a chest maybe? Let me see here," he said. He dug around it some more and it did feel like something wooden. His hand came across a metal handle and he grabbed on before pulling on it. She crawled around the other side and began to dig away at the sound around where his hand was, while he continued to pull on it. As she cleared away more of the sand, he fell back as the chest popped out of the ground and landed a few feet nearby. He stared up at the sky for a moment before he sat up. Pitch flew over to the chest and landed on the top before pecking at the top of it. She crawled over and shooed him away.

"So there really was some treasure buried here! I wonder what's in here?"

"It doesn't seem that heavy though."

Bianca sighed. She picked away at the large lock on the front and opened it up soon after. He got to his feet and looked over her shoulder but there wasn't any treasure inside. The only thing inside was a weathered looking map. She took it out and looked over it. "I…what is this?"

"Looks like a map but where does it lead…wait, this map looks similar to the one Kasumi had! The one that supposedly led to that—"

She interrupted him with a laugh. She folded the map up and tucked it into the front pocket of her shirt. "You just gave me a wonderful idea! I'll just give this map to her."

"Huh?"

She looked at him with a wink. "Redbeard was a bit of a practical joker. He would make maps leading to treasure he buried but he would also make fake maps that would either lead to nowhere or a booby trap!"

His mouth fell open and she laughed some more. "That's…"

"What?" She asked. He shook his head.

"I was just thinking…that's kind of a cruel prank to pull, especially on someone you admire—"

"Aren't you the one who was telling me that the person I admired, the person that drove me to become a pirate…isn't the person I thought she was?"

He opened his mouth to say something but realized that is exactly what he had done. "Ahh…well you got me there."

"And you know what? I decided to look more into it. I kind of asked around, called up some people and…you're right. No one really respects her as a pirate anymore, she's become something of a sideshow, obsessed with a treasure that may or may not exist. She's not even a pirate anymore but a hopeless treasure hunter. I'm a pirate, a pirate with her own ship with a crew that appreciates their captain," she said. She laughed. "It's a shame you aren't much for being a pirate."

"Does it matter? I'm just the dumb muscle, right? You'll make me go along with your schemes and until I get away—"

"You still want to get away?" She asked with a wounded look. Pitch let out an amused chirp and he nodded.

"I'm not a criminal. I helped put away criminals…I feel uncomfortable being a pirate. It's one thing to hunt for treasure but it's another to steal from others."

She laughed. "We mainly just steal from the rich and pirates. What, would you be more happy if we did a little more treasure hunting?"

He rubbed his chin. "Well…treasure hunting would be nice but if you were just going to do that, why would you be pirates in the first place?"

"Eh, you're right. I enjoy being a pirate…huh," she said, as she seemed to have lost her train of thought. A troubled look grew on her face. "I haven't heard back from my men."

"They said they had things under control."

She took out a phone. "Yes but thinks can quickly turn the other way as well. I better contact them," she said as she dialed a number. She wasn't on it for very long though. "No one is answering. Usually they would after a bit. I think we better go back and—"

"I think you better hurry along but only one of you is leaving this island," Kasumi said. The two of them turned around to see her standing behind them, arms folded across her chest.

"Kasumi?"

"And who the hell are you?" She asked of Bianca. Bianca laughed.

"I'm just a pirate like you are—"

"I don't remember Cruel having a girl crewmember. He didn't even tolerate it. Or…"

"Actually…I am Cruel," she said before quickly pulling out that whip like weapon of hers. Before either of them could move, she flicked it in Kasumi's direction and it hits its mark, wrapping a bit around her leg. Kasumi slumped to the ground as her legs went numb and Bianca got to her feet. "Sorry but he already tried to pull that same move on me and it didn't work."

"What is that…"

Bianca snapped it in the air. "It's a whip of course but the edge of it is lined with the tentacle of a Tentacruel. Getting stung by them causes the same kind of pain and I thought it would be a very handy thing to have."

Kasumi groaned. "So the great captain Cruel is just a girl, just like me."

Bianca tapped her chin. "Well except I've got a crew that appreciates me, your crew tried to mutiny on you. It's kind of a shame…I used to respect you quite a bit but ever since you became obsessed with that stupid treasure—ahh but this is a waist of time anyway," she said with a shrug. She looked over at him. "What should we do with her?"

"Leave her here?"

Bianca shook her head. "Nope. If we leave her here, she'll just come back to terrorize us later."

He folded his arms. "So then what were you thinking?"

"I don't know…hit her a few times with my whip and then dump her into the sea—"

"What?"

She winked at him. "Just kidding on that one!" She said before sighing. "It's just…I imagined our confrontation to be much bigger and better than this. I wasn't just expecting it to be over so easily."

To be honest, he had expected a little more. She probably didn't know about that stupid whip but he had expected a tough pirate like her to be able to hold up a bit longer. "And what about your crew?"

Bianca sighed. "You're right. We don't have a lot of time to waste…"

"Why don't we just bring her along?"

Bianca's face lit up and she smiled. "Hmm…I like that idea. That way, we can decide what to do with her later. I'll trust you to keep an eye on her."

While Bianca drove the ship over to the island where the concert was going on, Ethan and Kasumi sat below in a room. She was tied up with some rope while he sat nearby. She struggled to get free but Bianca had tied those ropes pretty good so he couldn't imagine her getting free. "Ugh…she's more handy than I gave her credit for. And why are you just going along with this?"

He shrugged. "I'm just playing nice and biding my time until I can escape."

"You got second in the Pokemon League Tournament…you could have escaped easily before. Why haven't you?"

"I…I don't know. I guess you're right, I could have already escaped but…"

"Don't tell me you like her."

Wiggler squeaked in laughter and he smiled. "I barely know her. On one hand she seems pleasant enough but she also seems more interested in pirating and has a real vicious streak."

"You should just free me."

"No. I already said I'm just going to bide my time. And that means doing what she asks."

Kasumi grumbled. "Were the two of you behind the destruction of my hideout?!"

"She destroyed it…" he began to say before he remembered that he had helped. "Okay…we did destroy it but I was just following orders."

"Sounds like a f***ing copout to me."

Wiggler squeaked a warning in her direction but she ignored him. "Maybe it is but I didn't want to be on the end of that whip of hers. Again."

"This is just wasting time…now I have to focus on getting the orbs I've already collected back, before I can think about getting the rest."

He sighed. "And that could take forever. I was really looking forward to hunting for that treasure but…well…"

"But what?"

He shrugged. "It honestly seems like you're chasing after…a needle in a haystack I guess? Or one of those super rare different colored Pokemon…"

She laughed. "So what do you suggest I do? I've been searching for this treasure for years. I've put in the work finding all of those orbs and once I get the others back, I still only have six to go. How can I just give up when I'm that close?"

He rubbed his chin. "I don't know…hunt for treasure that isn't so hard to find?"

"Well f*** that. I'm not giving up on that treasure. I've worked too hard to just give up now! And don't think you'll be able to keep me here for long either."

He heard a knock at the door and got up as Bianca entered the room. She looked pretty upset as he noticed her watery eyes. "We got problems."

"That is?"

She slumped down against the open doorway. "My crew is gone…the entire ship is gone. I was scanning the open radio and I could hear police chatter about trying to get some divers in because of a ship that sunk. The ship they described was…was…"

"And what about Archie?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I don't know…I think I heard them saying he had gotten away and was moving eastward. I knew I shouldn't have left them alone…"

He looked over at Kasumi. "I thought the ghosts would have held him up for longer!"

"The…the ghost ship?" Bianca asked. He looked back at her and nodded.

"Yep, we sicced the ghost ship on him and his crew."

"Those ghosts are easily distracted. If they decide they aren't having fun anymore, they'll just leave. I'm guessing that is what happened," she said.

"Drat."

"B-but now what do I do? We were all supposed to go to Port Royal to celebrate but now…I don't even have a crew anymore."

Kasumi grumbled. "Isn't that obvious? Go get revenge on Archie!"

Bianca shook her head. "And what good will that do? Will that bring back my crew?!"

Kasumi shrugged. "Of course not but it'll make you feel better."

"No it won't."

"Then what are you going to do? Just mope around and feel sorry for yourself?" She yelled. "You're a f***ing pirate, you don't mope around about stuff like this! You take it to the chin and just…"

Bianca grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the room. She dragged him down the hallway a few feet. She ended up dragging him into another empty room before letting him go. He rubbed his arm a bit. "What's wrong?"

"Ethan, what should I do?" She asked. What had happened to the cheerful and confident Captain Cruel? Had everything just been that easy for her? Was this her first big challenge or something? "I really thought everything was going fine…how could I have screwed up so badly?"

He shrugged, "But everyone does. Just like how I got myself captured by you when I tried to help Kasumi out. Just like how I also got myself captured by Kasumi by falling for her trap."

"Yea but you just got yourself captured. Your mistake impacted only yourself—"

"Well I don't know about that one. I'm sure my friends are worried sick about me—"

"Heh, yea I heard police chatter about that as well. To be on the lookout for a guy named Ethan."

He rolled his eyes. "Well you could have said something."

She shook her head. "Why? I want to keep you on this ship. Even if I'll have to sit you down while I engage in pirate activities…"

He sighed. "That's great."

She looked away. "I just…I'm afraid of taking those kind of risks again. I'm responsible for the deaths of all of those men, I don't think I could handle letting that happen again."

He shook his head. "But Archie is responsible, he's the one who killed them. If anything, you should be angry with him."

She frowned. "Yea but what good will that do?"

"I don't know! I'm just saying you should direct your anger at him and not yourself. He's the jerk here."

Bianca leaned against the wall and stared off into space. "Then…we'll search for him."

"We?"

She smiled. "I'm gonna need a new crew now and you and Kasumi will be the first members."

"The first members. Not sure she's gonna go for that—"

"She'll get over it. She'll be my first mate—"

"Hey! And what am I, chopped liver?"

"You're the muscle…and the token good guy amongst a group of pirates."


	3. Swamp Thing

"So there is Archie's ship," Bianca said as peered into her pair of binoculars as they sat on the edge of the bay where Port Royal sat. The entire city lay at the center of a large valley with a large river running down from the mountains in the rear, while the river spread out in a huge delta throughout the city. To be honest, while the city looked real pretty, it didn't look like a safe place either. Something about it just screamed potential disaster in the making. "I guess he must be feeling himself after what happened."

"That b****** is getting quite the name for himself. I would love to get one up on him," Kasumi said.

"Didn't we kind of do that already? If the ghosts weren't so easily distracted, he might still be dealing with them," he said. Pitch let out a chirp of agreement.

"Maybe. I would have preferred dealing with him myself."

"Well now we get our chance, especially since they'll be getting themselves fat and drunk."

"But what's the plan?"

Bianca shrugged. "I like the simple approach of just sinking his ship, after we raid it for treasure of course!"

"But with all those people around…"

He let out a sigh. He didn't feel all that great about the plan or that he even felt like helping. He would be much happier just sitting it out but…why did another part of him want to also get one up on Archie? "Well I think I have a way…to cause a distraction."

"I'm not going into that city as a distraction," Kasumi said. "I know that's what you're thinking."

"I mean…can you imagine the reaction in a town of outlaws if a guy who helped put away a notorious Pokemon gang showed up? A guy who finished second in a tournament only to a Pokemon Champion?"

"Pick a fight with the entire town?"

He shook his head. "No, just cause a commotion. Maybe pick a fight with some. That's sure to be a major distraction, especially given my reputation. That should give you enough time to do whatever."

"I…like it! Let's do it!" Bianca said.

He had always read in books about cities like this, large port cities where pirates, criminals and low down scum could come and enjoy themselves. Whether it be drinking until they puked their guts out, gorging on food, carousing in seedy bars or just getting into trouble, it would be here. The weird thing is that many of the buildings here were marble white with pretty blue domed roofs but it seem wasted on the people here. He peered around a corner and saw a group of pirates taking turns punching a guy in the face. He could have either been a rival pirate or someone causing trouble but the sound of the blows made his stomach turn. The fight had drawn quite a crowd…the perfect setting to start a fight.

"Hey, hey you!"

The pirates stopped their beat down and looked over at him. "What is it shrimp?"

He held out two Pokeballs. "I was going to tell you to pick on someone your own size."

One of the pirates, a barrel shaped man with a thick red beard and a pair of pants and shirt several sizes too small, laughed at him. "Who do you think you are, challenging Captain—"

"I don't care who you are, I'm just seeing if you're too chicken to fight me."

He glared at him and laughed. "Who do you think you are? You're all high and mighty because you have a Pokemon with you? I bet you feel really important since you beat all the little brats on the street."

"I set my sights much higher, like Team Rocket for example."

"Team…Rocket? Ha, yea right! Like they would lose to a little shrimp like you!"

He took out a dirty looking Pokeball and summoned of all things, a Machamp. This Machamp wore a large eye patch and had all four arms plastered with tattoos. It flexed its two front arms and a chorus of laughter rose from the crowd. Ethan nodded and summoned Pitch. Pitch took to his shoulder but as soon as he heard the laughter, he let out an infuriated chirp. Ethan let Wiggler out as well and that him even more ridicule.

"A Wigglytuff? Are these your Pokemon or did you borrow them from your sister?"

"My sister wouldn't even use a Jigglypuff!"

"You…you have a sister?"

"My sister is off limits!"

"I'm a pirate, no girl is off limits."

"Hey, I have a sister too—"

"Your sister looks like a horse!"

"W-what? F*** you! You look like a horse!"

Ahh pirates, always good for starting up fights with each other, even over the silliest things. He was getting a tad worried. Already fights were breaking out in the crowd and it might even spill over into their battle. He disliked pirates…or maybe at least these pirates but he still didn't want them to get seriously hurt. He noticed Wiggler had put the Machamp to sleep, allowing Pitch to get his hits in but he wasn't worried about them.

"Hey, why aren't you paying attention to the match?"

He shrugged. "Why should I? I've beaten much stronger foes before. You're just small fry."

"Small fry? Who are you calling small fry?" He yelled. Ethan shrugged.

"I am. And I'm sure one of your guys said the same thing."

The pirate captain glared at him. "What are you talking about twig?"

Ethan smiled. He had noticed the smell of beer coming from the guy. If he were lucky, he wouldn't be in his right mind and would fall for this. "I've been walking around in town and I heard a couple of your men talking. They were drinking and saying the nastiest things about you, like your beer gut, your awful snoring or the fact that you like to listen to that cheery bubble gum—"

"What is he talking about?" The captain yelled as he turned to his men. He grabbed the closest guy, a thin looking orange haired guy, whose clothes looked a tad big on him. And he had the look of someone who was stoned out of his mind.

"Huh?"

"I said what is he talking about? Did you really talk about those things?"

The guy looked at him with a dazed look. "Huh, well yea…I guess? What are we talking about man?"

"I'm talking about your loose lips! What have I told you about not talking too much? You're about as dumb as a Slowpoke with a memory problem!"

The stoned pirated fired back. "Dumb as a Slowpoke? Look at you…a Snorlax would tell you to get on a diet!"

"I what? A gut is a source of pride for a pirate. The bigger you are, the wealthier and more traveled you are but you wouldn't know a d*** thing about that now would you? You Simipour looking freak."

"At least I'm healthy! You'll just curl over and die of a heart attack because you stuff your mouth with fatty foods, beer and sweets!"

The captain jabbed his fingers into the guy's chest. "At least I'll die an ecstasy fueled dream. You'll die all alone, with nothing to comfort you!"

And so on and so forth. They continued to lobby insults at each other, which just spilled into the rest of the crew. Soon they were all fighting amongst each other and had forgotten about him. He motioned for Wiggler and Pitch to join him and they left the scene in a hurry. He made his way down the crowded street, paved in cobblestone. He noticed also that many of the streets were lined with large wooden barrels. He couldn't imagine what was in them but rum was his best guess. He got next to one and took a whiff before turning away as a strong but sweet smell greeted his nose. "Yea, rum."

He felt someone grab him by the collar and before Wiggler or Pitch could help him out, he was dragged into a nearby alley and thrown against some barrels. He found a long and pointy sword pointed at his neck, belonging to Archie himself, surrounded by a bunch of his crewmates. Well…at least he was keeping them at bay, right? "So did Kasumi let you off your leash for once?"

He tried to sit up but as he noticed the blade get closer to his throat, he thought better of it. "She didn't even have me on a leash to begin with!"

Archie and his boys laughed. Archie leaned forward and chuckled. "Aren't you the guy who ended up getting second or third in the Pokemon League Tournament? What is a guy like that doing playing second fiddle to her?"

"Well she is holding one of my Pokemon hostage—"

"You're a powerful Pokemon trainer, just take it back from her! That's what I don't get about you, you have the potential to be a nasty pirate on your own right and you decide to be the guard dog for Kasumi, of all people."

He chuckled. "What do you mean by that?"

Archie pulled the sword away from his neck but still kept it in the general area. "I'm sure you know already about how unpopular her quest to find that mythical treasure is but I'm talking about the other stuff, like her tendency to stab her crewmembers in the back!"

"She…what?"

"I'm not surprised by your reaction but yea, she has a reputation for stabbing her crewmembers in the back. She's a pretty paranoid person; often worried that someone would double cross or what not so she would often kill them. She was also incredibly greedy and any booty she secured was for her and her alone. Anyone who speaks out is dealt with harshly."

Ethan rubbed his chin. "And I should believe you because…"

"I used to serve on her ship, ask her about it! I saw first hand how brutal Kasumi could be, how ruthless she could be. I lost many good men to her blood thirsty rampages."

"I'll be fine—"

"You didn't listen to a word I just said, did you?"

"I can handle myself just fine."

Archie sighed and one of his men spoke up. "Forget it boss, he's just like some of those other guys. The ones who fall for her charms and get swept up in her promise of adventure and riches. I've seen it before. He'll just end up like all the others."

"She has charms?" He asked. They really thought she had such a leash on him? "And like I said, she doesn't have a giant leash on me. I can do whatever I want."

"Then stop being under her thumb because it happens to everyone—"

"It won't happen to me so—"

Archie laughed. "Prove it. Be your own man."

He folded his arms. "Why are you so eager to see this? What if I become a notorious pirate?"

Archie smiled. "The better the competition, the better. There are far too many pirates who are nothing more than jokes. They have their little gimmicks as I'm sure you've noticed but that's it…gimmicks. Pirates like Captain Cruel or Lanturn or others. They try to have a name for themselves before they've actually made a name for themselves."

He wouldn't become a pirate, that's for sure. "I'd be an awful pirate. I put guys like you in jail."

Archie smiled, giving him a knowing look that sent a chill down his spine. "I'm sure but I've seen far more honorable guys turn into greater criminals than you would believe."

Yea right, that wouldn't happen to him…right? Of course not! That would never happen. "We'll see."

"I'll see if you have the balls to break free from your leash. Come on men, the taverns await!"

He watched them leave and Wiggler and Pitch hurried over once the pirates had left. He looked over at them and frowned. "Do you guys think Kasumi has me on a tight leash?"

Pitch and Wiggler exchanged looks before Wiggler looked back at him and squeaked a response he didn't like. "I'm not whipped! Why does everyone seem to think that? I can decide things for myself!"

Wiggler reminded him of how his Pokemon journey started, how Crystal got the big idea to become Champion and how he had gotten dragged along. Or when Lyra had declared he was her boyfriend and he had just went along with it. As Wiggler continued to point out all the times Ethan had just went with the flow, he got more and more annoyed until he told Wiggler to zip it. "Darn it, I can't really be like that, can I?"

Wiggler nodded and Pitch didn't speak up, for once. He frowned. "Well you know what? I can be my own guy, I don't have to just get dragged around all the time, and I can decide to do whatever I want."

Wiggler squeaked. "So then what will I do? Well…first, I suppose I should let Crystal and Lyra know that I'm okay. Goofy Lyra is probably worried sick."

After picking a fight with a drunken pirate and then causing him to get into a fight with his crewmates, he soon found himself in possession of a cell phone. He dialed Crystal's number and didn't have long to wait for an answer. "Hello?" Lyra asked.

Darn it, why couldn't Crystal answer her own phone? "Oh hey Lyra—"

"Ethan! Oh my…I can't believe it's you! E-Ethan, are you okay? Where are you?"

"Calm down—"

"Calm down? Calm down? How can I calm down when my cute boyfriend is out there…all alone—"

"I'm not your boyfriend Lyra. Where is Crystal?"

"Crystal is busy, helping search for you! When were you going to contact us, when you—"

"I didn't have my phone or an opportunity. I've been under the captivity of pirates—"

"Pirates? Oh my…you're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine, I'm not hurt or anything. I'm in Port Royal right now—"

"Oh then we'll come and get you!"

"This place is crawling with rough and tough pirates, that would be a stupid idea. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I can handle myself."

"I'll stop worrying when you're standing right in front of me!"

He sighed. "Stop being a worrywart, I can handle myself. I don't know when I can get back to Hoenn or Johto but—"

"You don't know when you can get back? How can you say that? Johto is your home. You're just going to abandon it now?"

"I don't even know this area! I don't even know how far away from Hoenn I am. I also don't have a boat to get around in a hurry or a flying Pokemon so I'm kind of stuck."

"Oh Ethan—"

"Stop that. I'll be fine. Besides, while I'm out here, I might as well do as pirates do and hunt for some treasure."

"And then you get to have all the fun!"

"I still have to get a boat…and someone to drive it…so it's not all fun and games."

"Well…"

"I better get going but just give Crystal the message that I'm okay and not to worry about me. Okay?"

"You owe me for this. I know where you're at, I could just let the authorities know and they could go there and search for you. Knowing you, you've probably caused a bit of trouble already. They'll know what you look like, they can get it out of the pirates."

"I owe you?"

"Do you want me to get the authorities to search for you or not?"

"No!"

"Then you owe me…a romantic evening. A whole day even! If you agree to that, then I'll play along!"

He rolled his eyes. Lyra would do that kind of thing. Whatever, he could figure a way to get out of it somehow. "Okay, deal."

"R-really? For real?"

"Yes, it'll be the most romantic evening—"

"Oh thank you! You won't regret it one bit! You will really love it! You won't regret it at all!"

"Okay, okay—"

"And I'll keep my end of the bargain too! Okay, well I'll let you go, love you Ethan!"

He sighed and said his goodbyes before hanging up. He imitated a gagging motion toward Wiggler and Pitch. "I hope she grows out of that crush eventually."

Wiggler reminded him of how long he had been saying that. "Yea…maybe she'll never get over it. It's been going since we were little kids…oh well, it's Lyra. We need to worry about finding a boat!"

Pitch chirped as he took to his perch on his shoulder. "I don't really feel like surfing around on a Pokemon this time. I got a bit sick of it and if you aren't traveling on a Gyrados or a similar Pokemon, it takes too long. I know I don't know how to control a boat so we'll need someone…to drive it."

He folded his arms. Now where would be a good idea to start looking? Maybe the bars? He knew for a fact he wasn't going to wander down to the brothels or the seedier bars but there weren't many safe areas in a place like this. He looked over at the two of them. "I'm gonna need the two of you to back me up here."

He left the alleyway and walked up the street. He stopped at a sign on the corner of the street, with arrows pointed in various directions. "Let's see so…I guess we can't go down this way since it leads to the brothels. That's a no so…maybe we can go down this other way? Or…let's check out this restaurant here," he said, motioning to what looked like a pizzeria. The name of the place was even Buccaneer Pies, how could you hate a name like that?

Like many of the other business, if you could call them that, Buccaneer Pies was an open-air building. He walked into one of the open doorways and looked around the room. Many of the circular tables were empty except for a booth in the corner where a young guy hovered over a large plate of pizza. He heard what sounded like a fight from down the street and chuckled.

"What is going on out there? It seems a fight breaks out every hour now," the chef asked. "Port Royal has never been like this before."

"Oh really?"

"Yes…there are fights but nothing like this. It could end badly if it gets any worse."

"Bad as in?"

The large man slapped his belly and laughed. "I'm talking about a bunch of drunk men getting their hands on torches and Pokemon. Port Royal might go up like a light."

He looked over at Wiggler and Pitch. "Ahh well I might get out before it gets any worse. You know of anyone who can pilot a ship?"

"Well there's this guy over here. Used to pilot a ship but I guess the captain got into a drunken fit and fired all of his crew."

Ethan glanced over at the solitary patron, who didn't bother giving him a second look. Or a first look for that matter. He cleared his throat as he walked over and the guy looked up at him. He had a really young looking face, almost girlish. His dark blue hair was pulled down to shade most of his face. He wore a dark red skullcap and a large red overcoat…which seemed really out of place since it was so warm out. "Hey."

"Huh? What do you want?" He said in a low voice, so low it sounded as if he was compensating for something. Like a not so low voice. "I'm eating here."

"The chef said you know how to pilot a ship."

"Do you even have a ship?"

He put his hands in his pockets. "I can get one."

"How?"

He sighed. "Look he already told me you're unemployed, I don't think you should be insulting someone who would be willing to employ you."

He shrugged and went back to his pizza. Wiggler bounced into the seat opposite of the guy and he rolled in after him. The guy continued to nibble away at his pizza and Pitch leaned into his ear and chirped something. He seemed to suspect that this guy was actually a girl and while Ethan didn't have anything to back up his claims, it was worth looking into but he would leave that to Pitch. "You're still here?"

"I still need someone to pilot my ship."

"I bet you're only interested in me because I look safe and non threatening."

He shrugged. "I don't know about that. I'm just looking for crew members before things turn bad in a hurry."

"I'm done with being a pirate."

"I'm not really interested in pirating, finding treasure is more like it."

The guy shrugged and sat back. "Sounds interesting but why—"

"Why are you in an overcoat? Port Royal is a warm city and you look like you're dressed for a walk through Sinnoh."

"A lot of pirates wear overcoats like this, it's for style—"

"Yea maybe in the movies," he said waving him off. The guy shrugged and put his hands behind his head with a content look on his face, unaware that the buttons on his overcoat were mysteriously coming undone. He cast a side-glance at Wiggler, who seemed to be using Psychic to accomplish the task. The guy did notice after a bit and suddenly hunched over, letting out a…cry of sorts. He looked up at Ethan with a death glare.

"What was that for?"

"Nothing. Well actually we suspected something but—"

"You're going to use that as blackmail…if I don't join you, you'll reveal to everyone I'm a girl."

"But I didn't actually know that, you just told me though."

She blushed before shooting him another look. "So now what?"

"Well…I guess, do you want to pilot my ship…when I can find one?"

"You must mean steal one."

He shrugged. "We don't need to steal one when there are a bunch of drunk pirates around…just talk one out of his ship. So does that mean you're coming?"

"Do I have a choice?"

He looked over at Wiggler and Pitch. "I don't remember forcing you to join me—"

She pointed a finger in his face. "Yea but you also know I'm a girl and with that threat hanging over my head…if I don't join, you can always let that slip out."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't do that."

"How do I know that? I barely know you."

She brought up a good point. "Well…I guess, welcome aboard then! What's your name by the way?"

She grumbled. "It's Dawn."

"So…Dawn, do you have a good idea where we could find some pirates who could be talked out of a ship?"

"You're asking me?"

He frowned. "I was talking to Pitch…of course I was asking you!"

She sighed. "Well…if you really want to know, I know some of them like to hang out in the brothels—"

"We aren't going there."

Dawn brushed back her dark blue hair. "Then…we could also check out some of the taverns. There are bound to be some drunk pirate captains down there."

Pitch let out a chirp of a suggestion and his eyes lit up. "What about that pirate you used to work for? The one that got super drunk and fired everyone?"

Dawn folded her arms. "Knowing him, he's probably still down at that one bar, getting more and more wasted. I've never seen anyone down so much beer before, it was disgusting!"

"Yea, beer is pretty nasty."

"But…I guess we could go see if we can talk him out of his ship. It's not far from here actually."

She turned and walked past him and he followed close behind. As they walked down the street, they passed by the bodies of many pirates, who looked as if they had lost a fight with a steamroller. Looked as if they had fought themselves out but in the distance he could still hear what sounded like some fights going on. "What is with this town?"

"You can blame me for that. I started a fight with some pirates, and then got them to pick fights with each other."

Dawn shook her head. "Well I guess that's one way out of avoiding some fights. I don't know if that can keep working out for you but—oh whatever."

"Hey it works. You want your captain to be one of those bloodthirsty pirates who stabs their foes in the belly? Or slits their throats?"

Dawn looked at him with a skeptical look. "Do you even have that in you?"

"Do I look like it?"

She ignored that remark and kept walking. He wasn't sure what to think of her, except she had a smart aleck attitude. He looked over at Wiggler for his opinion but Wiggler didn't seem to know what to think either. He was sure Pitch had an opinion but he wasn't in the mood to hear it right now.

She led them into a small open-air tavern that didn't have any tables but a large circular counter in the middle of the room, with stools all around. In the corner of the bar sat a band, banging out some jazzy tunes. Every so often a patron would walk over and drop some money in the large open jar nearby but other times, a drunken patron would just fling a bottle in their direction. "I hate the smell in here," she said.

It was a pretty terrible smell but he couldn't figure out what it was. "So where is this guy?"

Dawn glanced around the room and pointed to a man slumped down in a corner. Ethan looked over and was amazed at how fat the guy was; there sure were a lot of fat pirates. Or maybe they just got fat after hanging around here for so long. Getting up was probably a big struggle for him. "He hasn't moved from that spot for days."

"So how does he go to the bathroom?"

Dawn shot him a dirty look. "Are you really asking that? Is that the first question that came to your head?"

"I didn't ask for your opinion—"

"You're getting it."

He pointed a finger in her face. "I'll make you scrub the deck," he said. He walked past her and over to the fat pirate. His shirt was covered with crumbs and so was his beard. The strong stench of rum rose from him and Pitch let out an annoyed chirp before flying off. Wiggler didn't seem near as annoyed but having to spend time around a Vileplume would condition anyone to tolerate awful smells. The guy looked up at him and mumbled.

"What do you want?" He asked in a drunken slur. Boy, it might be tough negotiating with him. He was really wasted the way his head bobbed around and the way his eyes seem to take on a mind of their own…maybe if he just straight asked for it?

"I need your ship."

"My…ship? Take it," he said as he reached over…somewhere into his massive folds and tossed him some keys. He caught them and wasn't sure if he wanted to just thrown them in some disinfectant or get some copies made and throw away the originals but…at least they had a boat now! Wiggler looked pretty dumbfounded at how easy that was but they walked back over to Dawn and Pitch, who immediately went back to his perch on his shoulder.

"We have a boat now."

"We…what?"

Ethan held up the keys as they left the tavern. "I just asked and he handed them over."

"Are you serious?"

"He's drunk!"

"You realize you took advantage of a drunk old pirate and stole his ship right off of him?"

Ethan frowned. "I asked him!"

"You took advantage of a man not in his right mind and took his ship from him!"

He waved her off. "He's a pirate, he probably just stole it from someone."

"I love how you just justify this—"

He pointed a finger in her direction. "Weren't you okay with this? Now all of a sudden you change your tune! I think you're just being a jerk to me!"

Dawn looked away, arms folded across her chest. One thing that did bug him was Bianca and Kasumi. They had told him that after they raided Archie's ship, one of them would come and get him. Did it really take that long to raid a ship? Oh well, it didn't matter to him. Hopefully they would be long gone before they discovered they were gone. "So Dawn, can you lead us to his ship?"

"Yea but it's not at the docks I remember."

"It isn't?"

She sighed. "He docked it somewhere else, come on."

Dawn led him down a paved street, which led down some more crowded streets, but those soon gave way to the open countryside. As soon as they were out of Port Royal, away from the fighting pirates, the stench and the overwhelming smell of beer, he realized how he wouldn't miss it. Dawn reached into a pocket of her overcoat and took out a Pokeball. "I guess I can let my Pokemon out now."

"You have a Pokemon?"

"Of course I do! Doesn't everyone?"

Did everything that came out of her mouth had to be a smart aleck remark? To his surprise, the Pokemon she summoned was a Piplup. It let out a relieved chirp at being let out of its ball and of course, Pitch had something to say. Piplup didn't appreciate being called short stack and fired an insult in Pitch's direction, who fired back with another one. Soon the two birds were chirping at each other while the three looked on in confusion. Ethan rubbed the back of his head. "Well that's Pitch for you."

"Your bird is a smart aleck."

"He is what he is."

Dawn sighed and looked down the large hill they stood on. They were surrounded by nothing but grass that blew in the mild, salty breeze. He turned to look over at the bay and could see ships coming and leaving, though more were coming in. As he scanned the bay, he noticed a large yacht sitting off by its lonesome. Seemed a bit odd someone would just dock his or her ship far away from everyone else. "So is that our boat down there?"

"Yes."

"He really is crazy. Why would you just park your boat all the way from everything else? Did he have something to hide?"

"I don't know. Maybe he did and he didn't tell anyone about it."

"You aren't the least bit curious?"

Dawn glared at him. "I was dragged away while on a summer vacation, forced to serve on a pirate's ship while doing my best to conceal my real identity…I don't think I would care much."

"Oh well, we have that in common."

"Huh?"

He laughed. "I got dragged awhile on vacation by pirates too."

"Oh."

"I guess I could go back to Hoenn now but I sort of want to stick it to Archie and show I can be my own person and not be dragged around—"

"And you think blackmailing a girl and stealing a ship from a guy who isn't in his right mind is…becoming your own person?"

"Dawn…did I ask you?"

"I'm just saying—"

"I still didn't ask you," he said with a grumble. They were going to fight as much as Pitch and her Piplup would.

Thanks to Dawn, they were able to launch off without any fanfare, leaving behind Port Royal in a hurry. He was glad to be free from it and while he wasn't fond of being stuck on a boat all day, it was better than having to deal with rowdy pirates. He sat in a chair in the corner of the cabin and sighed. "Dawn, you're making me hot by wearing that overcoat—"

"I like having it on."

"You don't need to hide the fact you're a girl now. That cat's out of the bag."

"You just want to ogle me."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't ogle and you're too annoying even if I thought about it."

Dawn shrugged. "So great captain, where are we headed?"

"I don't know."

"You don't…is that a serious answer?"

"I'm being honest. I am hoping we run across some large islands so we can explore. Or maybe this former captain of yours had some treasure maps on him."

Dawn sighed. "Well we're far enough from the city, I need to take a break. You want to take the wheel?"

"No. I'm going to explore this boat a little. Where are the captain's quarters?"

She pointed to the door behind them. "Go in that door and down the steps and you'll be there."

He nodded and got to his feet. He opened the door and let Wiggler in first before following him down the narrow and musty smelling stairway. He unlocked the door and stepped inside. To his surprise, the room smelled more like spices than the musty smell he anticipated. The inside of the room resembled…something. The walls were lined with dark red silk curtains with a skull and crossbones symbol made of gold on each one. A large red couch that covered half of the walls, adorned with large and comfortable looking pillows. On one wall lay a large flat screen TV, which sat above a large and shiny looking oak dresser drawer. On the other side sat a large wooden desk with many little drawers, each one with a little lock. The desk itself was covered with papers. He walked over to the desk and picked up some of the papers but many of them were just random doodles or the ramblings of a drunken pirate. He heard Wiggler squeak but he was just investigating as well. He swept some of the papers off the desk and discovered some old and weathered looking maps underneath. He sat down and began to look them over. They were maps of Hoenn but random islands away from the main continent were marked off with red xs. He turned to another map, this one with a view of some land west of Hoenn. There was one large island with several marks on it but what also caught his attention were some marks in the middle of the ocean. Were these all for potential treasure spots or something else? He tried one of the keys on one of the drawers and opened it up. Inside of the drawer were some empty Pokeballs but they were a different model from what he was familiar with, one half was black, while the other half was gray. On the top of it was a white skull and crossbones icon. "Interesting Pokeball."

He heard the door creak open and saw Piplup stumble in. He shot Pitch a look that told him to behave himself. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you with Dawn?"

According to him, he got kicked out as usual and got bored being alone. Piplup noticed Pitch on his shoulder and walked over to where Wiggler was, still digging through the drawers below the TV. At least it might be peaceful that way. He turned back and began to open more of the drawers. Some of them had gold coins in them, while others had trash but one of them had some rags in them. He pulled out the rag and realized there was something soft underneath. "Huh, what's this?" He asked as he picked it up. Before he could see what it was, he heard a frantic amount of chirping from Piplup. He looked over and noticed they had turned the TV on. "Hey, what are you guys watching?"

Piplup chirped a warning about him but he wasn't sure what he was warning him about. He looked over at the screen and noticed it looked like it was inside a bedroom. "So where is this? Is it on the ship?"

Piplup let out another chirp and Pitch flew down before chirping angrily at him. Ethan shot a glare at him. "Hey, hey I thought I told you to chill out Pitch! Why do the two of you have to always fight?" He asked. He turned back to the screen and his eyes grew wide when he saw Dawn on screen, in just her underwear. "Uh, uh…" he said, unsure what to do for a few minutes before his brain started working. He turned to Wiggler and snatched the remote away before turning the TV off. "How did you discover that?" He asked. Wiggler squeaked at him and he noticed a button marked camera. "Oh well…I guess that explains it."

Piplup shot him a dirty look but he waved the little penguin off. "Why is it my fault? You're the ones who played around with the remote!"

He looked at the remote. "We'll have to do something about those cameras. We don't need those around and if Dawn finds out…" He said as he let his thought trail off. He tossed the remote to the side and walked back over to the desk. He looked over the maps some more. "Ugh…I wonder just how far from Hoenn are we? It seems like most of these maps are for islands not far from Hoenn or in its general area…"

He continued to pour over the map, not noticing when Dawn had entered the room. He did noticed when he felt something hit the back of his head. "Ow!"

"You pervert!"

He looked down and noticed she had flung the remote at his head. He looked up and noticed she had ditched the overcoat for what looked like a black tank top, a pink miniskirt that looked a bit short to him, along with a pair of boots that matched and some knee high black socks. She pulled out a white cap with a pink Pokeball symbol on the front before pulling it over her hair. "Pink is a terrible color for a pirate."

"I'm not a pirate! Didn't you just say…oh forget that. Why were you peeping on me!"

"I wasn't peeping on you! I was peeping by accident, blame those two," he said, pointing in Piplup and Wiggler's direction. "I was over here reading some maps and they were busy messing around—"

"Was the button marked camera not clear enough?" She yelled.

"Oh it was darn clear. Which is why I shut it off!"

She put her hands on her hips. "I still can't believe you would peep on me like that!"

She obviously didn't listen to a thing he said. "There wasn't much to peep anyway."

"Why you…"

"Get over here. I discovered some maps underneath all these papers."

Her eyes grew big. "Maps, just what kind of maps?"

He scooted over his chair to make room. "Old maps. I'm not sure if they are treasure maps or not."

She walked over and looked down at the maps. She turned one of them over and he noticed there were some notes taped to the back. "He often left notes on the backs of maps to remind him what the marks were for. From what I can see…a lot of these marks are for treasure spots. Treasure buried by old pirates, like Redbeard."

"Really? Great, we just need to pick a spot—"

"Well for one stop looking at the maps that are close to Hoenn, we aren't anywhere close to that."

He looked up at her with an annoyed look. "Really? That sucks. I was hoping we were close enough to it."

Dawn shook her head. "Not by a long shot. Anyway…umm, let me see some of these maps," she said and he moved out of the way. He stood up and looked over at Pitch.

"Hey, we're sitting ducks here. Go outside and play lookout!"

Pitch let out a chirp and Wiggler waddled over to the door and opened it, before following the little bird outside. Piplup wandered over to them and Dawn shooed him away. "Why don't you go hang out with them? We're stuck with them so you might as well try and get along!"

The poor penguin didn't like the idea but he did as he was told. "Stuck with?"

"You think I like being stuck on a boat with a clueless trainer from Johto, far away from home?"

"Just think about the adventures we'll have!"

She shook her head and looked over the maps. She took note of one map and pointed her finger at an island. "This is Port Royal here…and if we keep going south, we'll run into this largish island," she said as she dragged her finger along the map and to a large island to the south of Port Royal. He looked down at it and notice it seemed to be dominated by a large body of water, maybe a lake or something else.

"Looks good to me, let's check it out!"

About an hour later, they arrived on the shoreline of the small island she had pointed out on the map. He looked out across the black sandy beach and his eyes grew wide. "Wow, this is kind of cool…I've never seen black sand before—"

"It's frequent on islands where there are volcanoes. At least that is what Lucas told me."

"Lucas?"

She put her hands on her hips. "He's taken over for Professor Rowan in Sinnoh. He's the main Pokemon researcher in my region; he's really smart for his age. I find it hard to believe he can be so knowledgeable so soon—"

"I can. My friend is already one of the strongest Champions around and she isn't all that old…only about 19 years old. She really knows hers tuff about battling."

Dawn folded her arms. "Still, it doesn't make any sense how—"

"Just because you're young, doesn't mean you're stupid! Kids can be just as smart as adults! Adults just have the benefit of time…"

"I still struggle to see it. I mean like, I don't even expect you to become a great pirate—"

"I'm not going to become a pirate! Treasure Hunter!"

Dawn put her hands on her hips. "A treasure hunter basically pirates treasure. How do you know if someone owns this island?"

"I don't see any signs that say so. Now are you going to make mean comments or are you coming along?"

She shrugged as he ignored her and walked through the line of palm trees. Crystal had a sarcastic side to her at times but she usually saved it for when Lyra was being silly and was gentler about it. Dawn just didn't seem to care on way or the other. He looked over at Pitch and then down at Wiggler, who waddled alongside him. "I tell ya guys, if I have to continue dealing with her mouth…one of these days…"

Pitch let out a chirp of agreement and Wiggler sympathized with him too. He shoved aside some vines in their path and felt strands of silk hit him in the face. He stepped back and brushed them off his face. "Great…hey Wiggler, care to check if there are any Pokemon in front of us?"

Just as he asked, an Ariados dangled down from the treetops. Pitch flew off of his shoulders and attacked it with his patented X-Attack, a flying type move where he hit the Pokemon with two crossing strikes. It knocked the spider down to the ground, where Wiggler chased him off with Flamethrower. They didn't have long to pat themselves on the back because a couple of Spinarak zipped down as well. Wiggler unleashed a powerful but off tune cry that sent the Spinarak scrambling away too. He looked around, expecting them to be besieged by more spiders. "I hate it when they do that."

Pitch let out a chirp as he flew back and he nodded. "Haha, you're right. We are lucky Bolt doesn't do that kind of thing. Or else you would be left paralyzed until it wore off. So…any others?"

The three of them scanned the area but it seemed the spiders had decided enough was enough. He smiled as he continued to walk down the somewhat narrow, downtrodden path through the jungle. He heard more footsteps behind him and turned to see Dawn following. "Oh so you want to come along?"

"I was waiting for you to clear out the spiders!"

Wiggler let out a squeak. "Oh…well thanks for the help."

Dawn nodded with a smile. "Of course, glad to be of help!"

Ugh. He turned away and continued down the path. "I wonder what is that body of water."

"A lake obviously."

"Hey, it might not be a lake. What if it's a large swamp?"

Dawn sighed. "Are you kidding? How in the world can a swamp be that big?"

"I wouldn't expect someone from icy Sinnoh to know but there are large swamps like that. I know Unova had quite a few of them and—"

"Well if that treasure is in a swamp, we can turn right back around."

He rolled his eyes as he thought he could see a clearing up ahead. "We came all this way and you want to give up just because the treasure might be in a swamp? I have Juan, he doesn't mind getting dirty if need be."

"If you're so eager to find the treasure, why don't you do it yourself?"

He shook his head. "I can't swim in a bog, not even if I tried really hard. Juan doesn't mind the mud, he's part grass anyway and can just as easily wash himself off."

"Doesn't seem right for you to make your Pokemon do menial tasks like that, just because you're too lazy—"

"Whatever," he said as he waved her off. He felt one of his Pokeballs rattle around and noticed it was the one with Chase. Usually he didn't do that unless he either wanted out or he sensed something big. And since he was at home in his Pokeball, he must have sensed something. "Okay Pitch, time to go into your ball."

Pitch let out a chirp, saying he wasn't cool with that idea but after getting shot a look, he relented as Ethan summoned him back. What a fussy bird. He took out the Pokeball holding Chase, and let the little Litwick out. He floated into the air and began motioning toward the clearing. "Huh, something powerful?"

"What is that?"

Ethan turned toward Dawn. "Oh him? He's Chase, my Litwick."

Dawn leveled her eyes. "A what?"

"He's part ghost and part fire. He's native to Unova. They're known for…uh…well…sucking the life out of people."

"Sounds like a winner."

He stabbed a finger in her direction. "Hey, he's a good Litwick! He doesn't go around and do that. Well unless you tick us off, then he may do it," he said, even though Chase wasn't really that malicious. Chase floated over to the clearing and he followed, emerging from the jungle and walking through the wet and low lying grasses that bordered a huge bog. Much of the murky water was covered with large blankets of shrubs. In the middle of the bog, he could see a ridge where a few trees grew and what looked like a real old shack. Even through the fog that hung low around the area, he could make out a small path through it but he wasn't sure how sturdy it really was. He walked down and put his foot down on the path. It seemed sturdy at least but the way Chase was acting, he wasn't sure if he wanted to walk down that path.

"Oh my dear captain," Dawn said and he shot her a look. She walked down to him and sighed. "Just one tiny little suggestion."

"And that is?"

"That we don't go waltzing down the middle of this bog."

"And what gave you that idea?"

She grumbled. "While you were too busy walking around with your head in the clouds, I noticed a pole stuck in the ground with a bunch of shrunken hands attached. I don't think the natives would put that there as an invitation!"

He folded his arms. "Well for your information missy, we weren't going down that way. We decided to walk around the bog. Chase here felt something was off so until that bad feeling goes away, we'll—"

Chase let out a cry and he turned to see Piplup walking down the path that led into the middle of the bog. Dawn noticed as well. "H-hey, come back here Piplup, what are you doing?" She yelled but the little penguin didn't seem to hear her. That or he was just being a pain but either way; he kept walking down the path. She stomped her foot, "Oh drat, I have to get him now!"

She hurried down the path and Wiggler suggested they just ditch her. It was tempting but no. "Sorry. I know she's just a giant jerk…and I'd love to ditch her too but…no. It wouldn't be right."

Chase didn't like the idea either but he smiled. "We'll be okay! We can handle it, just like we did with Team Rocket!" He said as he followed after her. She had already made a good distance chasing after the little penguin but he didn't feel near as comfortable running along. For one thing, each time he took a step, his foot sank in a few feet, causing water to bubble up. Chase let out a little cry and he frowned. "Wait, what do you mean it's getting closer? How big is it?"

Chase didn't have the arms to demonstrate but by the sounds of it, it was a monster. "Drat, this is just perfect! Well then again, if it's part grass or part water, we can deal with that easily!"

Wiggler let out a worried squeak as they continued down the path. For a while he could hear the chirping of insect Pokemon about but it had gotten much quieter. The fog had grown thicker as well. "I don't like this…I don't like this one—"

He stopped when he could hear something rippling in the water. He looked ahead and thought he could see something moving to where Dawn was headed. She had finally stopped and picked up Piplup, berating him as she did. All of a sudden, an enormous creature, covered in mud and moss, rose out of the water. On the side of its head, he could make out one large red eye and he figured the other one was placed on the other side and as it opened its huge gaping mouth, he could see a long line of sharp pointy teeth…there had to be hundreds of them. Dawn dropped Piplup as she saw it approach. "Ahh…Piplup, Ice Beam!"

The little penguin gathered in some air before unleashing a stream of icy energy but the swamp…thing, summoned a bunch of vines to protect itself from the penguin's attack. It then used one of those vines to snap at him, sending Piplup into the drink. He looked over at Chase. "We won't be able to fight on even ground with this huge beast. Think you can help out?"

Chase nodded and floated over to where the monster was. He took out his Pokeball with Juan but Wiggler squeaked that he could handle it. He looked down at him and Wiggler nodded. "Okay well…then you'll have to follow my lead! Like I said, we should work on weakening this thing first!"

Wiggler squeaked and waddled forward. Dawn had already summoned her next Pokemon, a Gabite but it suffered the same fate as her penguin, which was a swim in the bog. "Ummm…" Dawn didn't seem to know what to do as it approached. The creature let out a cry of pain as Chase used a Will o Wisp attack on it, leaving it with a nice and large burn on its side. It lashed out at him with its vines but Chase went ghost mode, making it where nothing physical could hit him but he could still attack. Wiggler followed up with a blast of purple liquid, poisoning it as well with Toxic. Both of those were good but it still packed a punch, snapping at Wiggler with a vine and sending him flying. Wiggler sucked in some air and stopped his flight in mid air, floating back over to the ground before letting out the air again. He let out an annoyed squeak.

The creature wasn't as impressed and summoned a large amount of leaves off its back. Magical Leaf? Chase noticed it as well and he began to attack the leaves with frequent Ember attacks. However he couldn't stop them all and soon the swamp monster sent them flying in their direction. Wiggler unleashed a powerful cry from its lungs, filled with hot air too, sending the leaves flying off in various directions but a few made their way through and he had to fall on his belly to avoid getting cut. He wiped away some mud from his face. "Better a little dirty than having to take a swim in that bog," he said as he looked up. The swamp thing snapped some vines in their direction and Wiggler again tried to deflect them with Hyper Voice. He diverted a couple but slowed down the last one, enough for him to catch it with his hand. It felt wet and slimy to the touch. "Hey, keep a hold of that branch!" Dawn yelled. He looked up and saw a little Chimchar scrambling down the path. He grabbed the vine with both hands and the little monkey grabbed hold before scrambling up the vine. The swamp thing would have none of that, ripping its vine back out of his hands and sending the Chimchar flying into the air. The little monkey sailed through the air before landing on the creature's back. Well, that was one way to get on at least.

Ethan turned to Chase but he was still attacking it with fire attacks. Wiggler was doing his part with whatever attack he thought would work but the creature was still keeping up the furious attack. How could they end this in a hurry? He looked over at Wiggler. "Okay so I don't know about you but I'm sick of this fight."

Wiggler squeaked a suggestion, one that sent a chill down his spine. He had heard Wigglers suggest some pretty cruel things, terrible punishments that no one deserved but this…was pushing it. "Ahhh, are you sure about that? I mean you used it a few times before and…well okay. I'm not responsible for any damage you cause!"

Wiggler waddled forward as he braced himself. He had heard this dreaded attack many times before so he was used to it but how would the others react to it. It didn't take long to get a reaction; the huge swamp thing stopped its furious attack at once and disappeared back into the bog. He watched it leave and could hear Wiggler squeak a warning, more than a bit mad that he didn't get to finish his rap. Dawn looked as pale as Chase's body and she looked over at him with a horrified look. "Wh-what was that?"

He ignored her and walked over her. He looked over at the nearby ridge, it was kind of close but to get to it, he would have to take a swim and he wasn't sure he was up for that. "Hey, didn't you hear me?"

Where was the thanks for saving her? He folded his arms as Chase floated over. "So is that guy still around or did he leave?"

Chase flapped his little arms around and Ethan nodded. So it had been driven off. Considering how fast it had left, it wouldn't be coming back to bug them so there was that at least. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the map of the island. He unfolded it and looked it over. "Well it looks like the treasure might be on that ridge but how are we gonna get out there?"

Wiggler waddled over to them and let out a squeak. "Huh, you want to go out there and look for it real quick? All right…go ahead."

Wiggler bounced a few times before taking a large bounce over to the ridge. Chase floated after him as Wiggler made his way to the shack. "Ugh, I can't believe that Pokemon. What was it?"

"If I knew, I could tell you. Maybe it's a new species that has been hidden from researchers. Maybe it's a legendary, I swear you can't walk around without tripping over a legendary Pokemon."

"But why did you have your Wigglytuff sing that…awful—"

"Well did you want to stay here, fighting that thing until it had enough? I didn't so we decided to end the fight early."

Dawn sat cross-legged on the path. "You could have warned me!"

She could have thanked them at least but it looked like that was a strange new idea for her. "I thought about it but we decided to do it at the last moment—"

"You still should have warned me! I swear, it's like—"

"All right I've had enough of you! I just saved your life from a huge Pokemon and this is the thanks I get? Especially after having to deal with your crabby attitude all this time as well?" He yelled.

She looked stunned at his outburst but jumped to her feet. She got right up in his face and glared at him. "Oh, and do you think I still appreciate being dragged out here on your dangerous little treasure hunt? You think I appreciate getting blackmailed?"

He pushed his face closer to her. "Blackmail? You're still on that? How does that compare to saving your ungrateful life?"

"Maybe if you had just left me there in Port Royal, you wouldn't have had to save my ungrateful life!"

"Oh really? So do you want me to return you back to Port Royal? Where you can try and get on with some more pirates and hope they'll be nice enough to take you back home? Or do you want me to just drop you off in Sinnoh?"

She looked at him for a moment and then shook her head. "Don't take me back to Port Royal."

His eyes grew wide. "What but…you seem to hate being with me. At least it seems that way since you're mean and condescending to me."

"It's because you deserve it."

He pointed a finger in her face, "Accidental blackmail aside, does that mean we deserve the attitude? We did save your life, even after you warned me it would be a bad idea to go through the bog…"

"Well…I didn't really need the help. It surprised me but I could have handled it."

He waved her off. "You were dead if I hadn't stepped in."

"You got me in this mess!"

"And I got you out of it! What's your deal?"

"I told you my deal! It's with you! How you blackmailed me into joining your stupid ship, how you dragged me out here…how I almost got killed thanks to your little stupid treasure hunt…and what makes it worse…is that I'm stuck with you!"

He rolled his eyes. "Did you miss the part where I could ditch you on Sinnoh or something?"

"And then what will you do?"

He shrugged. "Something or another."

"Well I can't go back to Sinnoh. I lied about being kidnapped, I ran away from home. I…just wanted to get away from those bad dreams. People judging me for being some sort of…bad luck charm or something…I couldn't handle it—"

"What are you talking about? Bad luck charm?"

She gasped when she realized she had said it aloud. "Y-you didn't hear anything!"

He folded his arms and gave her a knowing smile. "I'm pretty sure I did. What were you mumbling about?"

"Nothing!"

"Nothing."

"Nothing!" She yelled as she turned away. He was still hoping for that apology but perhaps he should just stop worrying about it. He walked over to the edge and looked out over at the ridge. Chase and Wiggler were still inside and he began to wonder if maybe they had come across something. If the trail were cold, they would have already returned, right?

"I guess I'll just sit down—"

"I…I don't really like to tell people about this but…well if you listen, maybe I'll thank you and—"

"Maybe?"

Dawn sighed. "Okay…well fine then. I guess…okay I am sorry for having to make you rescue me and…well thanks I suppose for also rescuing me from that Pokemon. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."

He smiled. "Not a problem."

She put her hands on her hips. "Umm well…have you heard about the Pokemon named Darkrai?"

"Darkrai? Hmmm," he said as he searched his brain. It rang a bell but he wasn't sure where he heard it from. He thought it over for a bit and then shook his head. "I think I have but I can't really remember."

"Well Darkrai is a legendary dark type. No one is sure where it comes from but it's often seen around Sinnoh. Its main power seems to be its curse…a curse that inflicts the victim with horrible nightmares."

"Horrible…nightmares?"

She nodded. "It's considered terrible luck to encounter Darkrai…and even worse luck to be afflicted with that curse."

He rubbed the back of his head. "So you've been struck with that curse."

"I don't know if I can describe it that way. I did suffer from the string of nightmares and all but it's like I've been cursed with this strange aura…of darkness."

He could only raise an eyebrow and give her a confused response. "Huh?"

She held out her hands. "It's like all of a sudden, the Pokemon that people tend to dread, the ones they fear the most…are drawn to me. Pokemon like Driftblim, Absol, Dusknoir…Pokemon like that. It's almost like they feel like I'm just like them. Wouldn't you be scared of someone like that?"

He heard a cry and noticed Chase floating over to him with an excited look on his face. He shot him a look to wait. "I don't know. I mean…I can see why other people would be scared of them but I am not creeped out. People get worried about me because I have a Litwick…and remember they're known for sucking the life out of people!"

Dawn shook her head, looking annoyed. "I don't think you understand what I'm saying."

"You told me that you have some sort of dead aura about you that attracts ghost and other sort of Pokemon most people are scared of."

She sighed. "Yes but why do you seem to not care?"

"Because I don't. I'm not scared of ghost Pokemon or all those other Pokemon that people seem to dread. Many of them just have a bad reputation like poor Absol or just want to have fun like the Gastly line. I may get nervous around them because I might not be sure what mischief they're up to but scared…hah!"

She grumbled. "You're such a simple minded…"

"I'm not simple minded! Stop with the smart aleck remarks!" He said as he turned away. "All right Chase, so what did you guys find?"

According to the little ghost, Wiggler had uncovered a small crystal orb but something about it seemed a bit weird. "Weird…well maybe he can bring it over so we can look at it—"

"Back at the yacht. What if that thing comes back?"

"After hearing Wiggler's rap? I doubt it but…I guess we can go back. Oh another note, can we please call a truce?"

"A truce?"

"That we try and stop tearing into each other with sarcastic remarks?"

She tapped the side of her cheek. "Well I can't promise I'll stop being sarcastic with you but, I'll try to tone it down," she said with a smile. It wasn't exactly what he wanted but maybe things would get better? At least he had let his feelings known.


	4. Ghost World

Back at the ship, while Juan sprayed down the other Pokemon from their fight with the giant swamp Pokemon, Ethan and Dawn huddled over a table with the orb Wiggler had discovered. It was shaped like a sphere, made of something clear like glass but he wasn't sure if it was actually glass. It was about the size of a softball, maybe just a tad bigger and inside it appeared to have something like swirling purple clouds inside. "What a weird orb."

"You said that before. Can't you think of another word?" Dawn asked.

"I don't know…maybe eerie, strange, wacky…other worldly?"

"Okay we can stick with weird."

He held it up and peered into it with one eye. "Something about it…just…doesn't seem right. I've never seen anything quite like it."

Chase floated over to them and plopped down nearby. He studied the orb for a bit and then began to wave his little arms around as the flame atop his head turned orange. That only happened when he got really excited…or something. "What's with him?"

Chase told him and he looked over at her. "Well according to Chase here, he thinks this item doesn't even belong in this world. That it belongs in the Ghost World."

Dawn didn't answer when he mentioned it so she was probably familiar with it. "He's been there a few times before and he said this orb gives off the same vibes other items in the Ghost World do. They do it because the items belong in that world and usually other ghost Pokemon will pick up on it and take it back to the Ghost World."

"So…why don't we let him take it back to the Ghost World himself?"

Chase let out a sad cry. "Well the thing is…Chase can't get to the Ghost World. He's forgotten how to get there."

She rolled her eyes. "What a useless little candle—"

"He's pretty useful!"

"I was just kidding," she said. She shook her head. "So if he can't lead us to the Ghost World, who can?"

He looked at Chase and it seemed like they came to the same idea. "The Ghost Ship."

Her eyes grew wide. "You realize what you're saying…you want to actually summon those troublesome ghost Pokemon and get them to take it back? What if they drag us along?"

"You sure are pretty scared for someone who attracts ghost Pokemon like—"

"It doesn't mean I like the attention!"

He rubbed his chin. "It kind of sounds interesting though. The Ghost World…I wonder what it's like?"

"It's a place for ghosts…and not for humans. You're just asking for trouble."

He shrugged. "Well if you don't want to come, you can stay behind. Do you know how we can get those ghosts to come?"

Chase gave him a suggestion and he looked over at him. "Just hold it up at night? That seems easy enough—"

"Ethan, no!"

He glared at her. "We can't keep this thing on us forever and it might cause us more trouble if we just—"

She grabbed it with her hands and pulled it away. "You know what we do? It's pretty simple even. All we do is throw it overboard and let it sink to the bottom. It's so easy," she said. He grabbed it and pulled it back.

"It is easy but I'm curious about this Ghost World. I really want to see what it's like—"

"But what if you get stuck in there? What if you can't get out? You got a plan for that?"

He frowned. "Well not really but Chase has gotten out before so I know there is a way out at least—"

"He's a ghost. He's supposed to exist in that world. It's called the Ghost World for a reason. Not the Human and Ghost World, not the other Human World but the Ghost World. Ghosts."

"Why are you all of a sudden so worried about me? You weren't before," he said as he got up from his seat. She didn't answer him as he walked off.

Later that night, he walked back out onto the deck with the strange orb in hand. Chase floated next to him as he walked out to the edge. He shivered a bit in the cool night air and chuckled. "Time to see if those ghosts will show up."

He didn't even get a chance to hold up the orb before he heard that familiar foghorn. A thick fog appeared as he saw the huge ghost ship approach. Chase let out a worried cry and he felt a sense of dread as well but another part of him was kind of excited. Or maybe he was just crazy. The ghost ship stopped a good distance away but he could see the Gengar, followed by a couple of Duskulls. He presented the orb to them and Chase explained the situation. Ethan put his hand in his pockets while they conversed and noticed the Gengar looking even more amused than before. Now all of a sudden he wasn't so sure about this. Chase finished and the Gengar could do nothing but rub his hands together.

Chase shot him a look saying how bad of an idea this was. Gengar took the orb and gave it to his Duskull companions, who floated back to the ship. Gengar stood on the edge of the ship and began to jump and dance about. Ethan looked out across the water and suddenly the water in front of them began to swirl around, swirling and swirling until a blaster of light shot up from that spot. Gengar pointed over to it and laughed while he just looked out across it. Gengar floated over to the light before jumping down into the water, it had to have been some sort of portal but how was he supposed to get in? Swim? He looked at Chase. "So how am I supposed to get out there? That water isn't warm at all."

The Gengar floated back out of the portal and over to them. He stood on the edge of the boat before jumping at him. Ethan jumped back in surprise but tripped over something, sending him falling to the ground. His head hit the deck with a loud crack and a sharp pain in the back of his head. He suddenly felt himself float into the air and Chase let out a shocked cry. He turned around noticed his body still sprawled out on the deck. "Hey!"

He heard the door to the deck open and saw Dawn rush out. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw his body on the ground. "Ethan!"

"Would you quit yelling? I'm right in front of you," he said. She looked up in his direction.

"Huh…I hear your dumb voice but I don't see you."

He folded his arms. "I'm a ghost now—"

"They killed you?"

He rolled his eyes. "They didn't kill me just…oh whatever. Watch the ship, I should be back shortly," he said as he turned to follow Gengar and Chase.

"Hold up just a minute!"

He looked back at her and she stomped her foot on the ground. "I can't believe you're going to do this. Going to the stupid Ghost World…you really are really…stupid!"

He shook his head and she summoned her Driftblim. Wait, did that mean she was coming along or something. She turned away and let out a sigh before falling backwards in the same way he did, smacking the back of her head really hard on the deck. In a flash, a ghost like version of her was floating before him. She looked at herself. "This is…weird."

"And here I was thinking I would be free from your humor for a bit. Well let's stop wasting time," he said. He followed after the Gengar and Chase but as he did, he thought he could feel something cold grab his arm. Before he could see what it was, the portal sucked him in, dragging him through a short darkened tunnel before being dropped off on some cobblestone street. He lifted his head up from the ground and then frowned. "Wait, when can ghosts feel?"

"Your first thought is that? How about how do we get out of here?" Dawn said. He got to his feet and realized she had a hold of his arm. He tried to free his arm, to the amusement of Chase and Driftblim but Dawn would have no part of it.

"Look Dawn I understand not being a fan of this place but we haven't even taken two steps in—"

"Two too many!"

"Okay but still can you let me go—"

"I'm making sure you don't even think about staying here," she said as she glared at him. "Because you seem like the type who would just get carried away and drop everything because you got distracted by something fun."

"That won't happen. Please let go of my arm. I only want to check this place out and then get out," he said. He looked over at Chase. "You can get us out, right?"

Chase nodded and he looked at her. She rolled her eyes as she looked at her Driftblim. She let go of his arm and sighed. "As long as you remember we are going to leave this crummy place."

He looked up ahead and noticed the cobblestone path led to what looked like a giant haunted themed amusement park. He smiled as he hurried down the path. If there was one thing that Johto and Kanto lacked, it was an amusement park. They didn't even have anything that could be called a mini amusement park. The gates of the amusement park resembled the gates to a cemetery and for some reason it gave him a sense of dread, even if he was excited to enter. The attendant appeared to be a Dusknoir, who peered at him with its single red eye. It produced a large piece of paper in its hand and he looked it over.

"Why does it look like a contract to me?" Dawn asked. He looked at all the small print and it seemed like she was right.

"It does…I just wish I could read the fine print. Chase, can you help out?"

Chase looked the contract over and looked back at him. According to him, it was just a contract asking they respect the property, don't try and capture any of the Ghost Pokemon and enjoy themselves. He repeated what Chase had told him to her and she frowned. "That's all? All that print to say that? I think that little candle is hiding something."

"Why would he? Chase isn't like the other Litwick."

She put her hands on her hips as he looked down at the contract. "So how do we sign it?"

He pressed his hand against it and reeled back as it felt as if his finger had gotten pricked. Suddenly his signature appeared in blood on the bottom of the page. Dawn gasped. "Great…now we're stuck here forever."

"There wasn't anything on the page that said we're stuck in this amusement park forever! If it did, I wouldn't have signed it."

Dawn folded her arms before holding out her hand and touching the paper. Soon her signature appeared on the contract too and the Dusknoir put it away. The gates opened with a loud screeching sound and smoke poured out along the bottom of the ground. He walked through the gates and found himself in front of a large wooden roller coaster, painted in all white. The loop section of it was centered just above the path and he looked up in time to see a long train, filled with a bunch of ghost Pokemon, go through the loop. He was used to people screaming while riding roller coasters but the ghosts didn't say a peep. "They must have nerves of steel—"

"Enough with the puns," Dawn said. He walked past the loop and suddenly he was blasted with a bunch of smoke, blurring his vision and leaving him to stumble around for a bit. He heard Chase cry out and as his vision cleared, he saw what Chase saw. They had found themselves inside of a large open-air arcade. Outside he could see the amusement park but he didn't remember seeing a building past the roller coaster.

"How did we get here Chase?" He asked but Chase didn't know. He looked over at all of the arcade machines and noticed the Gengar and it's two Duskull companions at a Pokemon themed pinball machine. He walked over while being bombarded by all the sounds you would normally hear from an arcade. As he did, he noticed that Dawn hadn't said a thing. He looked around and realized she wasn't with them. "Now where did she wander off to?"

The Gengar noticed him and motioned for him to give the machine a try. He walked over to it and began to play. Pinball machines were always his forte and he remembered enjoying his trips to Goldenrod because they had relocated the Game Corner and replaced it with a regular arcade. He would hang out there when Lyra dragged him and Crystal out to the stores. He did so well, his scores were ranked in the top five and hardly anyone could come close.

This machine proved to be a bit more difficult but soon he was lighting up the board as the score went higher and higher. As he wracked up a higher score, other ghost Pokemon drifted over to watch him master the board. Chase had floated off somewhere but he had probably just been push aside by the other ghosts. He finished with his last ball and the scoreboard lit up with his insanely high score, to the amusement of all the ghosts. He rested his hand on the machine and smiled. "Guess I still got it after all. I forgot how much fun that can be."

The Gengar motioned for him to follow and he did. The Gengar led him over to an arcade machine, a bullet hell kind of game where he took control of a fighter jet against a fleet of heavily armed aircraft ten times bigger than his jet. This was more of Crystal's forte, he could never get very far before getting blasted to death and since it was usually a huge quarter eater, he always gave up. This time, for whatever reason, he found himself blasting through the game with ease.

This continued on for quite a while, he would cruise through a game and they would invite him to try out another game. He was enjoying himself but he was getting a bit hungry and he was also curious what happened to Chase and Dawn. He looked out and noticed a nearby food stand with all kinds of your standard junk food and wandered over. The vendor was another Dusknoir…or was it even the one they had seen at the entrance? He looked up at the menu and smiled. "Um, I think I'd like a cherry funnel cake."

How would ghost food taste like? He was about to find out. He heard a cry and turned to see Chase floating toward him, paper in hand. "Oh hey! Where have you been? I have been in the arcade all this—"

Chase interrupted him with a cry and brought the paper to him. He took it and looked it over. "So, it's the contract we signed, what about it?"

He took the sweet smelling cherry funnel cake and sat down at a nearby table. Chase put the paper down on the table and turned it over. He pointed down at some of the extra fine print and Ethan frowned. Chase gave his explanation and Ethan's eyes grew wide. "Wait, hold up…really? If we're stuck here for a couple of days…we can never go back?" He asked. He stared down at the contract but the print was so tiny, there was no way he could read it. "Stupid fine print, how could anyone read that? A couple of days…that's not too bad, how long have we been here?"

Chase shook his head and explained it. "Sooo…wait. Time doesn't even really flow here? So we could have been here for a week and we wouldn't even know it?"

Chase nodded as he began to eat. It tasted just like a normal cherry funnel cake at least. "Well I guess we'll have to find Dawn first. Then we can get out of here."

He opted to just eat the funnel cake quickly but it only left him with a gnawing hunger. Like he hadn't even eaten a thing, even though he just got finished stuffing his face. "Well hold on a second, let me get another bite to eat first. I can't search for that dumb girl on E."

The Dusknoir brought out more food for him but each time he ate it, he realized he was just as hungry. It was like junk food or fast food but even worse. Then he began to realize he was basically eating ghost food, there was no real substance to it or anything. He shoved the plate to the side and got up. He looked around. "So…do you know where you last saw her?"

Chase thought it over for a second and nodded. He floated off and Ethan grabbed the contract and stuffed it inside his pocket before following after him. Chase floated past the various food stands and down a path which led toward a large black steel coaster, with more loops, corkscrews, twists and turns than any normal human could handle but since they were in the ghost world, it wouldn't matter. "A roller coaster? Dawn doesn't seem like the type to…oh," he said when he noticed Chase float down another path, leading to a Haunted House. It looked like your regular Victorian style Haunted House but he bet it would be a lot different inside than he thought.

They stepped through the doors as smoke poured out the bottom but the inside of the house wasn't an actual house. Actually when they stepped in, he realized they had entered…New Bark? "Hey, what's going on here?" He asked. Chase looked just as confused, just what he needed. "Well it feels just like New Bark…even looks exactly like it but this can't be the real New Bark—"

"Ethan, Ethan!" He turned to see Lyra running down the path into New Bark. She had a few bags on her arms, shopping bags by the looks of it and she set them down as she hurried up to him. "Good, I was worried you would have wandered off."

"Wandered off?"

She nodded. "To go riding on your skateboard or something. I was gonna be so angry if you ducked out on this blind date I set up for you!"

Wait just a minute…Lyra would never set him up on a blind date with anyone but herself! "Yea but with who?"

Lyra giggled. "That's why it's called a blind date silly! Don't worry, we're like siblings, I would know the kind of person would be right for you. Crystal and me came to the same conclusion."

He sighed but found himself a bit curious. Lyra and Crystal usually didn't agree on things but now? And just who was this girl he was going to have to go on a date with? "So what's with the bags?"

She reached down and pulled out a salmon colored shirt. "I'm gonna get Silver into this cute outfit and surprise Crystal! I think she really has a crush on him and I'm gonna do my part to get them to realize their feelings!"

She put the shirt away and folded her arms. "It's too bad this is just a casual date. I know the perfect outfit for you! It would have been this nice dark blue shirt…a nice subtle but sharp color, along with some white pants—"

"White pants?"

"Hey, level with me Mr. Yellow Shorts!"

He sighed. "Okay, okay. Maybe next time," he said. Actually he was more shocked at how normal the outfit sort of sounded. She always had the wackiest of ideas for clothes but now all of a sudden she went for more…normal looks? And she wasn't clinging to him every second?

She looked down at her watch. "Oh, you better get going though! You're supposed to meet her at the shorelines of Cherrygrove, I hope you have fun!"

"Huh but—"

"Trust me!" She said with a broad smile.

"Okay Chase, do you have an ideas?" He asked as they stood on the shoreline. "I mean…I am really at a loss here as to who they would match me up with on a blind date?"

Chase floated around in a circle but was at a loss for words. "I mean…this is like really weird. Lyra is normal, not kind of normal or normal right now but…normal! She isn't being clingy, her fashion sense is normal and she's…well I think you get the idea."

Chase nodded and let out a worried cry. "Yea, I know it's not real and all but I kind of wish she were like that. And she even gets along with Crystal when they usually argue or…or—"

"E-E-Ethan?"

He froze up when he heard that voice. No way…it had to be some sort of mistake. "Ahhh uhhh, yea?"

"Lyra said my date would be waiting for me on the shoreline…" she said. The voice belonged to the generally shy and quiet gym leader from Olivine City. He looked over at Jasmine whose face was bright red. He smiled at her.

"Haha, Lyra told me the same thing. I'm glad I agreed to this."

Jasmine smiled. "I…always thought that you and Lyra were a couple."

He shook his head. "Us? Nah, we grew up together, she's like a sister to me…just like Crystal."

She nodded, "Oh…okay!"

He smirked. "Anyway, knowing you, I figure you might like this one seafood restaurant in Goldenrod. I've been there before and I think you'd really love it!"

As the two of them walked off, Dawn hurried into the small town of Cherrygrove. It reminded her a bit of Sandgem, though Cherrygrove was just a tad bigger and the shoreline was much closer to town. Not to mention, it was a bit warmer than Sandgem was but she had to remind herself Sinnoh was farther north than the other regions. She thought she had heard Ethan's voice but he didn't seem to be around. "Now where is that clown?"

She heard a cry and noticed Chase floating around and looking lost. She hurried over and tapped him, reeling back from his hot wax body. "Hey, where's Ethan?"

Chase said something and she looked over at her Driftblim. "So he walked off to Goldenrod? What's Goldenrod? Is it a city?"

From the sounds of it, Goldenrod was their version of Jubilife. She could only roll her eyes at the idea of searching for him there. "So why did he leave? He…he left on a date? Doesn't he realize that this is fake? That it's just all just a silly dream?"

Chase gave her a conflicted answer. So…he knew it was a dream at first but he just doesn't seem to care now. "This is great…how are we going to get out of here?"

Chase let out a worried cry and produced that stupid contract they had signed; pointing out another tiny clause he missed. She looked it over and a chill went down her spine. "I-I don't want to be stuck here forever! I knew this was such a bad idea, why wouldn't he listen to me?"

Driftblim nudged her and she sighed. "I know I should have just stayed behind but…ergh, why can't I leave that blockhead alone? Chase, can you take us to Goldenrod? I don't know the first thing about Johto."

At least they got sort of the scenic view of Johto. She could only gaze in amazement at the city of Ecruteak and the unique designs of all the buildings, including the towering shrine in the back, surrounded by aspens always growing in their fall colors. She smiled at it. "I kind of wish some of the towns of Sinnoh had so much life…the only one that comes close is Floaroma."

She felt her Driftblim nudge her and she sighed. "I know I know, we have to follow after him but can't I just stop to look around for once?"

Chase flapped his arms and let out a suggestion. "Ask him to take me on a date and show me around? I'd rather die! Ugh…don't even say that," she said as she slapped her forehead. Just the thought of it just seemed too crazy, the two of them…on a date? "That reminds me…just how do we snap him out of this delusion? Hit him over the head with something hard? Pinch him?"

"Who in the world are you talking about?" A guy said. She turned to see a young man leaned against a lamppost, with a Gengar. He wore dark blue clothing but his dominant feature had to be his bright red hair. Dawn brushed aside her hair.

"Just some clown by the name of Ethan—"

"Ethan? From New Bark?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

"I got to admit, the guy is kind of a clown but he's harmless—"

"He's nothing but reckless! And he's so easily distracted, sometimes I just want to kick him!"

The guy chuckled. "He has a good heart. I thought he was all those things too but he's a great Pokemon trainer. He kind of taught me how to become a better trainer and to treat my Pokemon with care."

"Yea I get all that but—"

"I thought the same as you back when I first stole my Pokemon. Even worse, I couldn't believe I was losing to that doofus."

"He still is a doofus…I mean—"

"Silver!" A girl said in a whiny sort of voice. She noticed a girl around her age, hurry up to Silver. She had brown hair, done up in two curved ponytails and wore a white tee shirt dress with a Pokeball themed design on the side. A Meganium, who towered over everyone, followed her. She looked over at her. "Who is this?"

Silver rolled his eyes. "Stop giving me that look Lyra."

"What look?" She asked, giving him a wounded look. "I didn't give you a look. I asked you a question!"

"I'm Dawn."

The girl giggled. "Well I'm Lyra and this is pouty Silver," she said as she put her hand on his shoulder. He brushed it off and grumbled.

"I'm not pouty."

Lyra turned to him. "Yes you are. You're standing there, arms folded with a frown on your face…like this!" She said as she imitated his gesture. He looked ready to shove her but must have thought better about it and just waved her off.

"I'm relaxing. We just got done training in Dragon's Den and—"

"You sure do spend a lot of time in Blackthorne…are you trying to get a certain someone's attention? A certain blue haired gym leader…"

"No way! I was trying to get a rematch with Lance!"

Lyra frowned. "Lance?"

"I had a doubles battle against him and Clair. Ethan was my partner and we beat them but I would really like to take on Lance by myself."

"Sounds awesome, I would have loved to watch! Anyway, I need you to stop flirting with this girl—"

"I'm not flirting, I'm just standing here and minding my own business," he said while looking away.

"Good because you have to come with me. I've got you set up on a date with Crystal—"

"Y-you what?"

"Yep and she agreed to it but I can't have you dressed like that. You look like a dope! Now come with me!"

Silver pulled away from her grip. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"It's not a joke Silver, I really got you a date with Crystal! Now stop lolly gagging and come on!" She said as she grabbed his sleeve and dragged him away while the two Pokemon followed.

Dawn watched them leave and sighed. "Are these Ethan's friends? They seem just as silly as he is."

Driftblim suddenly made a suggestion and she shot a glare at him. "I will not go on a date with Ethan! Why would I ever do that…now let's stop wasting time and get to Goldenrod!"

"Okay so we're here in Goldenrod but where is Ethan?" She asked. She stood right next to the Radio Tower. She was a bit surprised that radio was still so prevalent here, hadn't they heard of TV? It was certainly as big as Jubilife but the city was a bit greener than Jubilife but perhaps it was due to being closer to the water? She looked around the bustling town and noticed him leaving the tallest building with what looked like the gym leader from Olivine. She had seen her around a few times in Sunyshore, hanging out with Volkner but why was she with him? Did he have a crush on her or something? She inched her way over as the two headed south toward a forest. Chase let out a cry and she looked over at him. "You can turn us invisible? Why didn't you say that before? It would have come in real handy earlier! We wouldn't be attracting all this attention!"

Chase nodded and soon had the three of them invisible from public eye. She hurried down the street, which soon gave way to a small route along the ocean. She passed by a day care center and noticed a few large Pokemon in the yard, like a Steelix and a Gyrados but she could admire them another time. "Who goes on a date in a forest?"

She could hear Driftblim and she grumbled. "It's not romantic at all! If you want to be romantic…take someone on a nice boat ride or maybe even a trip up to a tall mountain. A walk through a garden would be much better, a forest is too dark and you're bound to trip over something."

"You never told me why you like to come to this forest," Jasmine asked.

Ethan laughed. "Oh it's for a silly reason really but I like to visit a Pokemon here."

"A Pokemon?"

He nodded and motioned for her to follow and Dawn was one step behind. She began to wonder just what kind of Pokemon he wanted to show her. He walked past a line of bushes and disappeared. She pushed through the bushes herself and watched him pushed aside some bushes to reveal a large orange flower with white spots. Even from here, a sweet aroma came from the center of the flower, which confused her because weren't Vileplumes known for being smelly. Jasmine gasped. "A Vileplume…isn't that your Vileplume? I remember you having one when you fought me but why is it here?"

"Oh that's simple. He wanted to come back here and protect the forest. I suppose he felt like it was his duty or something and I wasn't about to get in his way so I returned him here. I like to visit him every so often."

"That's nice that even though he's no longer part of your group, you still treat him like it."

Ethan nodded. "Oh yea, you bet. Once a teammate, always a teammate."

Jasmine giggled. "That's so sweet. That's something I always liked about you, your heart toward Pokemon."

Dawn groaned to herself. She couldn't possibly be this sappy, right? What made it worse is how much he was eating it up. She looked over at Chase. "Okay so he's being a dope but is there anything we can do to get him out of this?"

Chase and Driftblim glanced at each other before answering. And she wasn't too pleased by their answer. "Are you serious? He's stuck in la la land so the only way to wake him up is with a kiss? Is that kind of…kind of joke?"

Both of the ghosts shook their heads and she grumbled. They had to be messing with her…just somehow. They were ghosts, ghosts were full of mischief but they also didn't have a lot of time to waste either. "Okay well we need a distraction…can you guys do it for me?"

Driftblim floated off while Chase held onto one of his string limbs. If anything would distract, it would be two Pokemon from regions who weren't even close to Johto. She made sure to not budge from her spot. "Hey Ethan, isn't that a Driftblim? And what's that other Pokemon?"

"H-huh…hey, Chase, what are you doing here?"

"Oh yea, isn't that your Litwick?"

"Yea but what is he doing out here? I thought I had him in his Pokeball. Hey come back here!"

Dawn peered through the bushes and saw Litwick float away from Driftblim and off in an opposite direction, while Driftblim went off in a different direction. "Umm, let me corral this Driftblim, they usually are up to no good and I hate for it to carry off a poor Pokemon!"

Ethan laughed. "Cool, I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Dawn moved away from her hiding spot and followed after him and Chase. At least they were apart but for how long? Ugh, no time to even think about it either. "Hey Chase, well you stop for a minute? Why are you acting like this?"

Chase didn't respond as he continued to float away. Ethan took out a Pokeball and pointed it at him. "Oh, fine. I don't want to do this but—"

"Ethan!" She yelled, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. He turned and looked over as she walked up to him.

"Huh, who are you?"

"Shut up you idiot, I'm not here to talk!"

"Huh but—" he said just as she grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face close to his. She leaned in and kissed him straight on the lips, if only for a quick moment. They pulled away at the same time, just as the entire scene melted away, replaced by a large darkened room.

He rubbed the back of his head and looked around. "H-hey, what happened? I remember being in Ilex Forest with Jasmine and then—"

"You jerk! You were so deep in la-la land that I had to…I had to…I had to—"

"You had to what?" He asked but as his foggy memory became a bit clearer, he laughed a bit. "Oh…ah…I'm sorry about that!"

She shook a fist in his direction. "You think that's enough? I wasted my first kiss on an idiot like you!"

He frowned. "Yea but I went in after you! Chase said you were stuck inside and I went in to rescue you!"

"So?"

"I got lost in la-la land because someone decide to wander into this building! Now let's get out of here!"

Getting out of the building was a bit easier thanks to the light pouring in front the bottom of a nearby door. They stepped out of the building and she latched onto his arm almost at once. "Hey! You know for someone who just said she was disgusted with kissing me—"

"Listen…you, we got into this trouble because we got separated and I'm not letting that happen again! So get used to it!"

He sighed. "Okay okay, I see your point but I think we got separated by force. And do you have to hold on to me? Can't you just stick close by? Isn't that good enough?"

"Was it good the last time?"

She had a point there. He sighed. "Okay well…I think I've had enough of this Ghost World. Chase, do you think you can lead us out of here?"

Chase nodded and began to float off. He looked over at her and nodded. "I hope he knows what he is doing."

He led them back to the entrance of the amusement park but found the gates bolted shut with a large chain link and a padlock as big as his head. He walked up to it and pulled out it a few times. "It's as strong as it looks. Oh well, no biggie…I'm sure Wiggler—oh," he said as he remembered he was only left with Chase. Chase floated over to it and shook his head.

"You mean we're stuck here?" Dawn asked. He looked over at her and shook his head.

"What, the ghosts leave this place all the time, there has to be a way out! I bet they did this for a reason."

"And that reason is they won't allow us to leave."

He stomped his foot. "I'm not here for your Debbie downer antics! I'm here to leave the Ghost World!"

Suddenly a trio of Golurk suddenly landed between them and the gate. Ethan jumped away, a bit tough with Dawn latched onto his arm. The enormous ghost golems towered over them and other ghost Pokemon, including that Gengar that had brought them here in the first place, soon joined them. "Now what?" Dawn asked.

Chase floated over to the Gengar and then began to converse. Ethan waited for Chase to return and he explained. "So…they aren't going to let us leave? I could have figured that out…hey, who is the big cheese here? I want to speak with it!"

"You want to talk with the big ghost Pokemon in charge here? You realize that we have two Pokemon between the two of us and your Pokemon isn't even evolved!"

"Who said anything about trying to fight?" Ethan asked. Dawn looked at him with a confused look but he just ignored her. Chase gave the message to the ghost Pokemon and returned with a message. "So they'll take us to him, perfect!"

So just who was the boss of all the Ghost Pokemon? For the life of him, he couldn't figure out who might be the strongest ghost Pokemon. Golurk were pretty strong but they were kind of slow compared to other ghosts like Gengar but Gengar were slouches when it came to defense. The army of ghost Pokemon led them out of the amusement park and into a forest full of dead trees and poisonous swamps. Flying above their heads he could see a bunch of Drifloon floating overhead. Between them and the ghosts leading them along the way, it was like they were being lead to their doom, if they weren't already ghosts already. "So if we don't leave, does that mean we become ghosts for good?"

"I guess? I'm not sure. I guess we would just become ghosts…a different kind of ghost."

"This is all your fault!" She yelled.

"My fault? Hey, you didn't have to come along! You made that choice yourself!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "And if I wasn't here, you would have been stuck in here—"

"I remember almost getting stuck in a dream world because someone wandered into an innocent looking haunted house," he said and she grew quiet. He looked over at Chase. "So have you met this boss before?"

Chase looked at him and shook his head but from the sounds of it, it was a powerful ghost Pokemon the other Pokemon respected. A powerful ghost that hardly ever stepped out of the Ghost World to interact with humans except on a rare occasion. The ghosts began to part like the sea as he saw a large and rotting old Victorian style mansion in front of them. Most of the windows were busted out and filled with cobwebs. It made him wonder just what kind of Pokemon had spun those webs but what drew his attention more was the Pokemon standing before the mansion. It was a giant Spiritomb; it's cloud of energy much larger than any Spiritomb he had seen before. It looked down at them and laughed. "So you two are our newest members."

"H-huh? You can speak English?"

"We're both ghosts, we're merely talking the same language. Your ghosts can do the same, they were just ordered not to."

He looked over at Chase. "What you can?"

Chase sighed in a chirpy voice. "I'm sorry."

Talk about weird. He was so used to them speaking in Pokemon language but to hear him for real was…a bit much. "So then Driftblim—"

"And you didn't actually have to kiss him either," Chase said and he shot him a look.

"You…oh we'll deal with that later. Okay Spiritomb, why can't we leave the Ghost World?"

The Spiritomb chuckled. "Because I decided you can't leave."

Ethan sighed. "Why? What do you gain from us being here?"

"Entertainment. You seem like a human that would amuse us."

"Me?" Ethan said before looking at her. "Well that's nice and all but we don't belong here."

"Do you? Any longer and you won't be able to return to the living world, even if you wanted."

"What, but you have to let us go then!" Dawn yelled. He waved her off.

"You're a ghost…how about we have a little game?" Ethan asked as he pulled away from her and walked forward. "A game of riddles actually. If I win, then you let the two of us go. If I lose…then Dawn leaves but I stick around. It looks like you guys are more amused with me anyway so—"

"Wait, what?" Dawn asked.

"A game of riddles? Hmmm…can you really out riddle a Pokemon that has lived for lifetimes?"

Ethan smiled. "Well we're about to see, aren't we?"

Dawn grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close with a concerned look on her face. "Do you realize what you're doing? If you lose…you can't go back. You'll be stuck in this world…forever! Doesn't that scare you?"

"I…I guess it does in a way. I guess I just sort of reminded myself before I entered that there was a chance I might not be able to leave. It can't all be that bad—"

"You can't go home at all. You'd be away from all your friends and family, stuck in this creepy place with nothing but Ghost Pokemon."

"It beats being alone, right?"

"You idiot! Why aren't you—"

"All right, I agree to this game of yours. I'm intrigued a human ghost would challenge an ancient existence, it's bold."

He pulled away from her again and walked over. "Yep, that's just how I like to do it!"

"However this will be a one on one fight. Between you and me, and no help from anyone else."

Ethan shrugged. As he expected. "Fine by me."

"And as for you friend, she should be returning back to the world of the living," it said as he blew a powerful wind in her direction, blowing her and Driftblim away into a white portal, which closed up as soon as they were gone. Well that was one way to get rid of her. The other ghosts shooed Chase away and soon it was just he and the Spiritomb. "I'll go first, seeing as this is my turf and all. Now then…you use a knife to slice open my head but you cry when I'm dead. What am I?"

Ethan frowned but it soon dawned on him pretty quickly what the ghost was talking about. "Is it an onion?"

"Correct."

He smiled. "Okay good. My turn then…I am weightless but you can see me. Put me in a bucket and I make it lighter, what am—"

"A hole," Spiritomb said, in no hurry to let him finish. He nodded, a tad annoyed at how quick he figured it out. "I'm where yesterday follows today but tomorrow is in the middle, what am I?"

He folded his arms. So the order went today, tomorrow and yesterday…they were all in alphabetical order but where would he find them like that. "Oh…uh…a dictionary?"

"Correct," Spiritomb said. Ethan let out a sigh of relief. These were going to get real tricky in a hurry and if he messed up, he was stuck here for good.

The battle of wits continued on for what seemed like hours but since time didn't work the same as it did in the physical world, he wasn't sure just how much time had passed. They kept lobbing riddles between the two of them and while Spiritomb got them right off the bat, he had to spend a little more time figuring them out but so far, he hadn't been stumped. He finished answering Spiritomb's last riddle and began searching his brain for one. Trying to stump the ancient ghost was just as hard as he thought, he just knew too much. Perhaps…he knew Spiritomb didn't leave this place, perhaps he wasn't all that familiar with current technology? "Okay, I think I got one! I can be as big as a stick of gum and as light as air but I can hold thousands of words, who am I?"

Spiritomb didn't answer right off the bat and he smiled. That was a start compared to how fast he had answered all the rest. He put his hands in his pockets while he could hear the other ghosts around him, talking amongst themselves. Even they were a tad stumped as to what he was talking about. He looked over at them and as he scanned the crowd, he noticed a Rotom floating about. He was used to Rotom taking the form of appliances but this time it was in the form of a computer. And on the screen was a bunch of symbols and letters. Wait just a minute…was it trying to send a message to Spiritomb? After a time, Spiritomb answered. "Am I a USB zip drive—"

"You cheated," Ethan said. Spiritomb gave him a look as the ghosts around him began to talk amongst themselves again. He motioned over to the Rotom. You agreed to no outside help and I noticed the Rotom turn into a computer and it appeared he was typing out an obscure message. I figured it was a code that the two of you knew."

Spiritomb began to chuckle and he suddenly heard a round of applause rise from the crowd of ghosts. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what this was about when Spiritomb spoke again. "Very well, I did in fact cheat so you have won the game."

"Oh good," he said, letting out a sigh of relief. Chase floated over to him. "So you'll let me leave this place now?"

Spiritomb nodded and he noticed a Sableye step forward with a small box. "A reward for being the first one to beat me in a game of riddles."

Ethan took the box and opened, getting a bright flash of light in his face. He stumbled back and fell on his butt as he tried to recover from the light. As his vision began to clear, he began to feel the cold air again. It reminded him that he had lost the ability to feel it in the Ghost World but it was back now. As he sat up and his vision began to clear, he got blasted in the face with a bunch of cold water. "Hey, that's c-c-cold!"

"What took you so freaking long? You kept me worried!"

He looked up and saw Dawn standing over him with a bucket. He wiped away his face some more and shivered. "Couldn't you just—man that is cold!"

Dawn sighed as she tossed him a large towel. "Sorry but you had been gone for hours! I thought that maybe you had lost the fight and was stuck there for good."

He wrapped the towel around his body. "I'm fine, it was just a long battle. We both were able to keep figuring out the riddles but I figured he might not know much about current technology and stumped him that way."

He heard a squeak and felt something bounce atop his head as Wiggler landed at his feet. He turned and let out an overjoyed squeak and smiled. Ethan leaned forward and put his hand between his two ears. "So you helped watch over the ship? I knew I could count on you as always!"

Dawn tossed the bucket away and let out a frustrated sigh as she held out her hand. He grasped her hand and pulled himself up. "So now what? And why do you have that strange orb around your neck?"

He looked down and noticed a necklace around his neck with a small orb, just like the one they had found and delivered to the ghosts. "It must be my reward for beating him at the game of riddles."

"I wonder if anything has changed about us? People aren't supposed to be in that creepy place and according to your bunny here, we were gone for several days!"

He laughed. "Wow, time really flies in that place. I guess we'll find out sooner or later. Now it's time to relax and figure out what's our next stop!"

"So…what is this island called exactly?" He asked as they neared a pair of large islands. A large smoking volcano dominated the island in the back while the island closer to them had a steep butte covered with foliage.

"I don't know to be honest. I don't think it's been explored very much."

He nodded. "Judging by the looks of it, we could be here for awhile. I hope we discover some real treasure!"

"Yea, we've had a bunch of luck there," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"If we keep trying, we're bound to discover something."

"Or we could just end up dead."

He sighed. "Dawn, why do you have to be such a Debbie downer?"

She shot him a look. "Do you even remember what just happened to us? That we were almost lost in the Ghost World?"

"Yea but we were able to get out safely."

Dawn rested her forehead on the wheel. "Are you really going to just pressing your luck like that?"

He shrugged. "You don't have to come, you can stay here and guard the yacht with your Pokemon and wait for us to return."

She let out an annoyed sigh and he knew what that meant. "You know I can't do that and you know it."

They reached the shorelines of the nearest island and as he hopped off onto the large sandy beach, he noticing something sitting amongst all the sand. He strained his eyes further and noticed a Pokemon sitting there and it didn't look any Pokemon he had seen before. "Hey…I don't recognize that Pokemon before, have you?" Dawn asked.

"No, I was gonna ask you the same thing. Wow, wouldn't that be cool if we discovered a new species of Pokemon?" He asked. She shrugged and they could only give her a skeptical look. Any normal person would have jumped at the chance and here she was just shrugging it off.

"I get the feeling running across new Pokemon is going to be a regular thing with you."

"Still! Oh whatever Dawn," he said as he hurried over. The Pokemon reminded him a bit of a Totodile, in fact it seemed to have the same body as Totodile except it's body was olive green and the spikes along its back were a darker green. It had a bit more of a potbelly and wore a necklace made of bright yellow feathers while it wore large white mask over its face. The mask was half white and half red with eyeholes on each side. Lying nearby was a large wooden spear. He bent down as he neared the Pokemon and it suddenly noticed him and let out a growl. Ethan jumped back but so did the little reptile, as he grabbed his spear and growled some more.

"Looks like he wants a fight," Dawn said. She sighed. "Piplup!"

"Hey, I'm the captain here—"

"Piplup, use Ice Beam!" She yelled. The little penguin hopped forward and spat a beam of icy energy in the Pokemon's direction. He used the spear and catapulted himself into the air. "Ahh Piplup! Dodge it!"

Before it could whack Piplup with its spear, Wiggler came out of nowhere and head butt the little guy out of the air. The impact sent it sprawling across the beach, its spear landing several feet away. The Pokemon got to its feet and opened its mouth, spitting out a stream of fire. Piplup responded with a blaster of water of its own, overpowering the flames and nailing it right in the face. Wiggler bounced a few times before taking a giant bounce high into the air and landing straight on the Pokemon's head, driving it into the sand. Wiggler bounced off and landed next to the spear as if to ensure the Pokemon couldn't get to its weapon. He took out a Pokeball but decided against it. He walked over and Wiggler joined him. "Okay Wiggler, care to ask him a few questions?"

"You don't want to capture it?" Dawn asked. He held up a finger.

"I want to see if he knows anything about this island first. Then we can think about—"

"What are you monkeys doing out here?"

Ethan's eyes grew wide as he looked over at Dawn. "Who said that?"

"Uh, I think it's this Pokemon we just beat—"

"I'm not speaking English you stupid monkeys!" It said. Ethan shook his head and looked over at Wiggler.

"Don't look at me E. Maybe something happened to you two in the Ghost World," he squeaked.

"H-h-how can we understand Pokemon?" She asked.

"Stupid monkeys. Why are the two of you following their orders?"

"We beat you fair and square, stop being such a sore loser. And why are you hiding behind that mask anyway?" Wiggler asked.

"Our entire tribe wears them, it's a source of pride for all of us. You monkeys don't know a single thing about pride, you're all so shameless."

Ethan shook his head. "You're a pretty sore loser, you know that? Now enough with the smart aleck attitude, I get that enough around here. I need you to answer some questions for us."

"Whatever—"

"So what can we all you?"

"It's King Koopa—"

"Okay so we can call you Koopa," Dawn said, cutting him off. He growled at her.

"Anyway, you're on Dinosaur Island but this part of the island is where the freaking apes live."

Ethan folded his arms. "You must mean humans."

Koopa growled. "I mean guys like Primeapes, Infernapes—"

"Oh, I see now."

Koopa squirmed out of the sand. "We dragons live on the other side of the island but I was out here doing a little spying. The tribe of apes are our greatest enemies but they like to hide in the jungle so we are never sure what they're up to."

Ethan looked over at Dawn. "A tribe of Pokemon? That sounds kind of interesting. Maybe we should check it out, I think it would be interesting to see a whole civilization of Pokemon."

She sighed. "Sounds dangerous but since when has that stopped you?"

"Hey Koopa, you know where they might be?"

"Of course I know where that is, it's the Ancient Temple of the Apes. I guess I can—"

"You will show us it because we beat you fair and square," Dawn said. She smiled at him while Koopa growled.

"All right but I'm warning you, this tribe of apes are bloodthirsty monsters and they don't take too kindly to trespassers. I've seen what has happened."

Ethan and Dawn shared a look. "What has happened?"

Koopa growled. "Well first they strung them up, pulled out their innards while the poor victim was forced to watch and then left them out to dry in the salt fields—"

"Are you just trying to pull our leg or something?" Ethan yelled. Koopa laughed a bit and Dawn cleared her throat.

"Piplup, let's see if our new found friend here enjoys another icy cool blast to the face—"

"All right, all right! They just dump them in the dangerous sand pits where the Sandworm lives."

The path through the jungle was a somewhat downtrodden dirt path. The air was pretty hot and humid, making it a bit tough for him to breathe but it seemed even worse for Dawn who was used to more high altitude areas. She lagged a bit behind the others and every so often they had to stop and wait for her to catch up, all the while he could hear the sounds of birds and other Pokemon about. "Stupid ape—"

"Hey cut it out. You're our prisoner now so you better mind," he said as he walked over to her. She bent over and gasped for air. "Shall we slow down some more?"

She looked up at him. "I'm not asking for your pity."

"You still seem to be having it tough here, I forgot Sinnoh is a bit higher up than the other regions."

She hunched over again and sighed. "It's…its just air, I don't understand why I'm having such a big problem."

"Well we can slow down—"

"You're just saying that because you pity me!"

He rolled his eyes. "Do you want some help or not?"

"Let's just leave her!" Koopa said and Ethan shot him a dirty look. One of these days, he was going to have to give that dumb Pokemon a good swat or two.

"Okay…maybe if I piggyback on you, I'll be fine. At least until I get used to this air."

"Uh…sure, no problem!"

Her eyes grew wide. "You're okay with that? Just like that?"

"Yea sure, it's fine," he said as he bent down close to the ground. She got onto his back. He hooked his arms under her legs and realized she wasn't near as heavy as he thought she would be…but he wasn't about to mention that! "Okay, well let's get this show on the road!"

They soon arrived at the edge of a large clearing of a meadow…or something. A thick fog hung around the area, making it tough to see just what was in this clearing. He set Dawn down and walked a few feet into the clearing. "This isn't where they live, right?"

"I think we're getting close," Koopa said.

"Oh really? Well that's great! I'm kind of sick of all this wandering around in the deep jungle. We haven't seen any new Pokemon apart from yourself and well this really is boring."

"What did you expect ape? A nice little walk through a warm jungle where the Pokemon bounce all around you, singing Bah Bah, while Clefairy hand you ice cream cones?" Koopa asked.

Ethan ignored him and walked further into the clearing. By the looks of it, there appeared to be a small lake in the middle of the clearing, almost bog like. He walked further into the fog and heard Dawn speak out. "Oh hey, oh great captain?"

"What is it now?"

"Oh I just thought that maybe we shouldn't be here."

He turned around and looked in their direction, noticing that none of them had followed him into the clearing. "Why?"

"Well, I just noticed these stakes stuck in the ground with shrunken heads in them. It seems like a blatant warning if you ask me."

"Well yea that sounds like a warning! Would it have hurt for you guys to tell me this before—" He didn't get to finish as he felt something sharp suddenly hit him in the neck. He reached up and pulled out a small dart, wincing as he did but before he could look at it, he felt himself black out.

When he came to his senses, he found himself lying on something hard. It felt a bit like stone and as he opened his eyes, he noticed he laid face first on a stone brick floor. He sat up and could see plants growing through the cracks but what he also heard was the various sounds of monkey Pokemon. He looked around and found himself standing amongst a sea of monkey Pokemon. There were quite a few Chimchars, Mankeys, Aipoms and even the three elemental monkeys he had seen from Unova. Amongst them were their evolved forms. He stepped back and felt himself bump into someone. "Is that you Dawn?"

"We got dragged to their temple."

"Well that's one way of finding them I guess."

"Stupid ape!"

"Oh give it a rest," Wiggler said.

He looked over at Dawn. "So what did happen?"

She sighed. "Well you fainted dead away but when I tried to hurry over, a bunch of these monkey Pokemon came out of hiding and took you away before making us come along too. We were outnumbered so we just had to stick along."

"Oh, well that's great but—"

All of the crying from the Pokemon stopped and he noticed some of them part as a dark red Darmanitan strode forward, complete with a large gold crown on its head. All the other monkey Pokemon fell on one knee as it approached the area where they stood. It slammed its fist on the ground and stared straight at him. "Who are you humans?"

"Uhh…well my name is—"

"Do you understand what you have done?" It asked in a bellowing voice. Ethan shook his head and it slammed its fist on the ground again.

"You trespassed on our sacred burial ground, you defiled it!"

"There's always a sacred burial ground," Dawn said under her breath.

"Did you not see the warnings?"

"Well maybe you could move them in front—"

He slammed his fist down. "Did I ask for suggestions human? Sacred burial grounds, and you just stomped over them like nothing."

Ethan sighed. "Well I apologize about that—"

"You think your puny little apology will suffice for the grave injustice done to our forefathers? You humans are all alike."

"Well not exactly but—"

"For your poor decision human, you must walk the Path of Death. There the gods will judge you. If you come out alive, you are free to go."

"Path of Death? That sounds like a nice walk in the park," Dawn said.

"Path of Death? Well—" he began to say before a pair of Primeapes walked forward and pulled him away. They pulled him threw the throngs of monkeys and through a darkened hallway. "Hey, so guys just how long is this path of death?"

Neither one answered as they dragged him down the hallway until they tossed him down an open hole. He slid down a small slide before landing at the beginning of a long and narrow path, the first part of it lined with large monkey stone faces on alternating sides. Every few seconds, a powerful stream of fire spewed out and he sighed. "Of course…it's a death course, what else did you expect Ethan?"

He gathered himself before getting to his feet and walking forward. As he watched these strange structures, he noticed a pattern to the blowing flames. As long as he moved quickly enough, he could make it. He took a deep breath and charged forward. He stopped in front of one as the two ahead blasted fire and once they stopped, he darted ahead. The next three were a bit trickier as the one in the middle went off before the other two. He stepped forward and as soon as it switched off, he stepped forward. After the other shut off, he hopped forward. Just as he was clear, he heard something crash to the ground. He turned to see a large boulder rolling toward and he rolled his eyes. He turned and started to run down the way.

Up ahead of him, he could see several large holes in the path ahead of him and some of the ledges between them weren't all that big either. It wouldn't be a death course without them! He gathered himself and leapt to the first ledge and landed with ease. He jumped for the next one but made it a bit short and had to grab a hold to save him from falling down. He hauled himself up and began to make his way across the other gaps. He rushed into a narrow passageway and heard the boulder slam into the entrance. He hunched over, gasping for air as his heart decided it was time to go nuts. "Man…those things looked a whole lot easier in the movies."

He stood after a few and walked through the short passageway, which opened into a large bowl shaped room. At the front of the room appeared to be a row of openings in the wall. He heard a low rumble and suddenly a bunch of boulders began to roll out of them, all headed toward his way. He let out a frustrated sigh as he charged forward. He took a running jump and rolled over the first line but as he rolled to the ground. He looked up and saw another line of boulders headed toward him and he gathered himself before tossing himself over that next line. "This is…a lot tougher than I thought."

He got to his feet and ran as fast as he could, gasping for air as he did. As he neared the path leading out, he heard a low rumble and suddenly small stones began to pour out of the openings. He grimaced as he hurried forward, leaping over some of the river of stones and landing on the dirt path away from there. He sat up, only to gather his breath while he watched the smaller stones pile up with the larger boulders. "That is just…too much. We've had fire, pits, rolling stones…what else can they do to me?"

After awhile, he gathered himself and trudged up the path, he found himself inside what looked like a large arena. High above him, were a bunch of the monkey Pokemon, cheering as he entered the area but it probably wasn't for him. He bent over to gasp for more air and as the cheers grew louder and louder. He looked up in time to see a guy enter the arena, wearing a large wooden mask adorned with brightly colored feathers all around the edges. It was big enough to cover his entire body and the mask itself had an angry look to it with large slanted eyebrows made out of more feathers and fierce markings painted on the front. The guy waved around a large spear in his hand as he approached. "Great…a fight to the death as well."

The area floor itself was littered with stones and a few spears as well but he wasn't sure how handy he could be with one. He grabbed one, just as the guy leapt at him with his own spear. He jumped out of the way but only at the last moment while the guy slammed his spear down on the ground and yelled out something. Yea, trying to fight him head on would be stupid. Ethan snapped the spear over a nearby rock and backed away as the guy charged at him. He ran up a rock and leapt off it before coming down in his general vicinity but again he hopped out of the way. He got to his feet and hurried away; all the while he could hear the guy yelling at him as he did so. "He's gonna jump at me again."

He turned and shoved a rounded boulder in the guy's path, causing him to land awkwardly as the boulder rolled into his path. Ethan took a running start and slid at the guy's hurt ankle, sending him falling to the ground. He picked up a smaller stone nearby and tossed it on the guy's ankle, causing him to cry out. He sat down on a nearby rock while the crowd continued to cheer. Did they want him to finish the guy off? He wasn't in the mood to do that, he just wanted to get out of here in one piece but as he listened in closely, it sounded like they wanted him to kill the guy. Kill him? He just wanted to get out of here in one piece! He looked down at the downed warrior and then at the crowd before tossing his spear to the side. "Now time to find my way out of here."

As he hunted around the arena for an exit, he could hear the crowd getting louder and louder. Their cheers soon turned to jeers and howls, as if they were angry with the two combatants. He got nearer to the crowd and he could hear them calling out for his foe's head. They really wanted him to kill the guy! He looked over at the downed warrior and grumbled. There was no way he was going to kill him, he had beat him and that was good enough but the crowd didn't agree with his sentiment. A side door opened up and the king Darmanitan strode in. He let out a growl before slamming his right fist on the arena floor, causing it to shake. "Whoa…whoa, what's the big idea here?"

"Do you think this arena floor is for you and your foe to have a nice and neat battle?"

Ethan shrugged. "Well you didn't give me a sign on the walls that said this place was for fights to the death. I figured that—"

The king grabbed him by the collar and lifted him several feet off the ground, to the cheers of the crowd. He glared into his eyes and breathed a soaring hot breath onto him. "You figured…nothing human. Don't play games with me and do what you're told. You've defeated your foe, now kill him!"

"I'm not a killer! Get someone else to do your job!"

The king got his face closer to his, his huge nose bigger than Ethan's entire face. "You think I'm playing around? I said you'll kill him or else!"

"Or else what? You can threaten me all you want but I'm not going to kill this guy."

"We have been merciful, do you think those scaly reptiles will be as kind to you?"

He shrugged, "I don't know—"

"How about we find out you stupid human? We'll see how those reptiles treat you!"

Not too long after, he was tossed into a large pit with Dawn and that mysterious combatant. Dawn let out a sigh as they closed the small manhole sized cage over it, the only light into the pit. "Where are our Pokemon?"

"You think they were gonna let us keep them?" She asked. He couldn't see in the dark but he knew she was just rolling her eyes. "So what now?"

"Well from what the king told me, they'll be taking us to the wastelands that lie between their land and the reptiles…they'll dump us there and ensure we don't try to return to their land."

"So we're getting banished."

Ethan nodded. "You could say that."

"This is all your fault, if you had left well enough alone, we wouldn't be here, would we?"

"I don't know, we might be getting into trouble somewhere else instead," he said with a laugh. She grumbled.

"This isn't some sort of game Ethan, we could be in serious danger out there!"

"You act like this is our first encounter with danger Dawn! We're in danger wherever we go. Stop acting like this is the first! Now stop whining and let's figure a way out of here."

"How, by digging a hole?" She asked.

He looked around the pit and placed his hands against the walls of it. He dug his hand into the moist soil but they soon ran aground rocks embedded within. "I think it'll be too tough to dig our way out, they probably lined it with rocks—"

"Just peachy. I'm going to die in here with—"

"We haven't been banished yet Dawn!"

She let out a loud sigh. "Okay so I'm gonna die in the wilderness with you…I never imagined this is how my life would end."

The mysterious warrior he had fought in the arena crawled forward and motioned for them to follow. Ethan glanced in Dawn's general direction before following the warrior. He didn't get far before his hands no longer had firm ground under them and he fell down a long and narrow hole. The fall lasted for only a few seconds before he landed in some water down below. He swam back to the surface and could see the warrior swimming on ahead. "Hey wait up! We're not exactly the—"

He didn't get to finish as Dawn landed on him, sending him back underwater. He swam back up and glared at her. "Why were you just waiting under there like that? You knew I was coming down!"

He grumbled. "Well sorry, I was thinking!"

"Thinking? Aren't you the fools rush in sort of person? I do the thinking around here!"

He turned and swam after the warrior, choosing to let Dawn ramble on and on. Eventually she would realize she was talking to the air and would follow. It looked like they were swimming a large underground lake that extended for quite awhile but they had landed near the edge of the lake. The warrior had hauled himself on dry ground, at the edge of a rocky path that led into another passageway. Up above in the alcoves, he could see hundreds of Crobats hanging upside down and asleep. "This place creeps me out."

"I don't see anything creepy about it. They like to live in caves anyway, what's so scary about that?"

"How do Golbat evolve into Crobat?"

"By being happy with their trainers, how else?"

Dawn didn't say anything at first and he wondered why she grew quiet…was she trying to tell him something. He just wasn't sure what. By the time they reached the shoreline where the guy was, he had to ask. "Okay Dawn what are you getting at?"

She crawled out of the water. "That this stupid lake might be full of a bunch of dead trainers."

"Lake is burial ground," a gruff voice said and he noticed it belonged to the warrior, who had his hands on his hips. "We monkeys bury dead here."

He felt Dawn wrap her hands around his neck. He looked over and saw her glare at him before she started to shake his neck. "You had me swimming in a lake full of dead people! Dead people! You had me literally swimming in a lake where they dump the dead!"

"Would you prefer us to be still stuck in that pit?"

"I want to be home in my soft bed, not swimming in lakes full of dead bodies, getting captured by Pokemon and dying before I'm 25!" She yelled before letting him fall to the ground. The warrior chuckled.

"You argue a lot."

She took off her hat and squeezed the water out of it. "I have no choice but to talk some sense into him."

"Talk some sense into me? I didn't become the captain—"

"You got to become captain because there wasn't anyone else to do the job. No one would be crazy enough to join your crew—"

"Except for you," he said, pointing a finger in her direction, causing her to blush.

"You married?"

"No!" The two of them said in unison. The warrior laughed. "Just the thought of it makes my skin…well okay maybe not crawl but—"

"Ahhh anyway, it seems you can talk. Do you mind telling us your name? I'm Ethan and this is my…second mate, Dawn!"

Dawn sighed. "Do we really have time for this…captain? They might notice we're gone in a few. And then they'll be after us!"

He looked over at her and then at the warrior. "Yea, you're right. We can talk later!"

The warrior nodded and motioned for them to follow him into the passageway. It was dark inside, so dark he could barely make anything out, forced to keep his hands spread out so he wouldn't bump into any walls. Behind him, he could hear Dawn grumbling about the conditions but they didn't seem horrible to him. It was dark but the air wasn't bad and it wasn't a sweltering mess. He preferred it much better to the pit they had been thrown into and yet she still felt like complaining?

"Dawn, do you ever stop complaining?"

"Have you taken a look at our situation?"

"I have but we're not in that stupid pit anymore, right?"

"Without our Pokemon mind you!"

"We're alive, right? And this warrior guy knows how to fight so we aren't helpless. It beats getting banished to wherever. Once we're free, we can come up with a plan to get our Pokemon back."

"How can you be so confident?"

"I don't know…doesn't it beat being such a Debbie downer?"

After what seemed like an hour or two, they emerged through a vine-covered hole and into the jungle again. He jumped forward and stretched out his arms as he took in the warm sunlight again. A sweet smell greeted his nose and he looked around before noticing some large yellow flowers with purple specks all over the petals. They reminded him of the blooms on Vileplumes. "I wonder if these are just some different colored Vileplumes," he said as he inched closer to the flowers. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder before the warrior pulled him back. He shook his head at Ethan, who cast a glance over at Dawn.

"Hey, don't look at me. Maybe they're just really dangerous."

"Flowers deadly. Do not touch without partners!" the warrior said.

"He must mean Pokemon. That must be a Pokemon then," Dawn said without a hint of excitement in her voice. The two of them looked over at her and she shrugged. "What?"

He ignored her and looked at the warrior. "So what is your name by the way?"

The warrior reached back behind his mask and he heard a few bands snap before the huge mask fell off, to reveal a girl around his age. She had a head full of messy brown hair, with sticks, branches and leaves sticking out of it. Her lips were covered with something that resembled lipstick but it was pretty messy and it looked like she had smeared a fruit over her mouth. She wore only a top made out of small leaves sewn together and a beige colored loincloth. "You're a girl?!" Dawn said.

"Name is May!"

"May…so her name is May. Mayday?" Dawn said with a smirk.

"Mayday?" May asked with a confused look on her face. She looked over at him for help but he shook his head. "Ethan save May's life!"

He waved her off. "Don't worry about it! I was just…doing my job."

"Doing your job?"

He shot a look at Dawn, who only just smiled. "You know I was just poking fun at you."

May wrapped her arms around him and lifted him up in a bear hug. She was a lot stronger than she looked and he felt as if she could snap him in two. "May owes you everything!"

"If you owe him everything, I hope that means you have a way of getting us out of here!"

"M-may? Can you let me go for a minute?" He asked and May dropped him to the ground. He landed flat on his butt and winced a bit. "Thanks."

"May wants to help you out, forever!"

"Then can you help us get our Pokemon back? I think they're still holding them back there!"

May folded her arms across her chest and tapped her bare foot on the ground. "Hmmm…back there is very dangerous, we have no Pokemon so very tough!"

"We can't just leave them back there though. We won't get very far without them either," Dawn, said. "And I refuse to leave without my Pokemon!"

"Dawn right, Dawn seem pathetic without Pokemon."

"What did you say?!"

He stepped in between Dawn and May as Dawn tried to push past him. "Dawn, Dawn…its a little jungle girl humor!"

"She's trying to make fun of me, that's what!"

"Prove to May! Prove Dawn no useless!" May said as she put her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at Dawn.

"I'm not useless at all! I can do just fine without my Pokemon. Tell her Ethan!"

Wait, why was she dragging him into this fight? This was between the two of them! "I'm not getting into this!"

"I'm your second mate"

"Oh now you're my second mate. Before you didn't want to have anything to do with me!"

She hit the top of his shoulder with her fist. "Look smart aleck, we're going back to rescue our Pokemon and I'm gonna show her that I can handle myself without my Pokemon!"


End file.
